European Union

Keeping our legal sight on the obstacles or difficulties for cross-border mergers which we started looking at in the previous article in this series, we cannot overlook that the laws of every state retain their own peculiar characteristics, a few of which are deep rooted although little known beyond their borders, which may place boulders in the path that are hard or impossible to move round.

There has been much talk about cross-border bank mergers in Europe, but so far none have happened or appear to be imminent. A few years ago Garrigues recommended that banks watch out for them in the future. Now the European supervisors are calling for them to be carried out and even trying to make them easier. But for the time being the bank concentration process is still taking place within each member state. This is currently being seen in Italy, with the acquisition of UBI Banca by Intesa Sanpaolo, and in Spain, with the merger of Caixabank and Bankia. It is not happening across borders. In this series of three articles we will try to identify and reflect on a number of legal factors that may partly explain this situation.

The CJEU will have to rule on whether it is EU law or national law that determines which jurisdiction applies domestically to hear damages action. The question is inscribed in the case commonly referred to as the trucks cartel.

On May 8, 2020 the European Commission announced a second amendment to the Temporary Framework adopted on March 19, 2020, amended for the first time on April 3, 2020, in which the framework is extended to allow aid to be authorized in the form of recapitalization or subordinated debt to any non-financial companies in need.

On April 3, 2020 the European Commission announced  the adoption of an amendment extending and adding flexibility to the Temporary Framework adopted on March 19, 2020 to enable Member States to give State aid for research, testing and production of coronavirus related products, and also to grant greater volumes of aid in under the categories already allowed in under the original Temporary Framework.  

On March 19, 2020, the European Commission issued a communication setting out a Temporary Framework that provides for more flexible and quicker authorization of State aid granted to support the economy in the current COVID-19 outbreak. The Temporary Framework is based on article 107(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which makes it possible to authorize aid intended to remedy a serious disturbance in the economy of a Member State.