DG Regional and Urban Policy | Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy | Directorate-General for Regional Policy | Directorate-General XVI-Regional Policy and Cohesion | Regional Policy DG

Directive on mergers

Directorate-General for Competition, Consumption and the Fight against Fraud | General Directorate for Fair Trading, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control

president and chief executive officer | chairman and chief executive officer | chairman of the board and chief executive officer | chairman and managing director | president and general manager

Definition: The essential feature is recurrent obsessional thoughts or compulsive acts. Obsessional thoughts are ideas, images, or impulses that enter the patient's mind again and again in a stereotyped form. They are almost invariably distressing and the patient often tries, unsuccessfully, to resist them. They are, however, recognized as his or her own thoughts, even though they are involuntary and often repugnant. Compulsive acts or rituals are stereotyped behaviours that are repeated again and again. They are not inherently enjoyable, nor do they result in the completion of inherently useful tasks. Their ...[+++]function is to prevent some objectively unlikely event, often involving harm to or caused by the patient, which he or she fears might otherwise occur. Usually, this behaviour is recognized by the patient as pointless or ineffectual and repeated attempts are made to resist. Anxiety is almost invariably present. If compulsive acts are resisted the anxiety gets worse. | anankastic neurosis obsessive-compulsive neurosis

Staffing Programs Branch [ Staffing and Management Category Programs | Management Category Programs Branch | Senior Excutive Programs Branch ]

Natural Resources and Economic Development Branch [ Northern Environment Directorate | Northern Environmental Protection and Renewable Resources Branch | Northern Natural Resources and Environment Branch | Northern Economic Development Branch | Resource and Economic Development Group ]

direct melt

Martine Dagenais, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Competition, Mergers Branch, Competition Bureau: Mr. Chairman, I am an assistant deputy commissioner of competition of the Mergers Branch at the Competition Bureau.

Appearing before us this morning on behalf of the Competition Bureau are Martine Dagenais, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Competition, Mergers Branch and Donald Plouffe, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Competition, Criminal Matters Branch.

In particular, on 16 June 2009 the Spanish authorities acknowledged that although the Cross-border Mergers Directive had a positive impact, European companies would still face a number of obstacles (35) to cross-border mergers because of non-harmonisation of national legislation (rights of minority shareholders, rights of creditors, trademark issues, wider regulatory aspects including labour law, general political and strategic considerations).

Although Council Directive 90/434/EEC of 23 July 1990 on the common system of taxation applicable to mergers, divisions, transfers of assets and exchanges of shares concerning companies of different Member States (30) (hereinafter the Cross-border Taxation Directive) has removed tax barriers, Directive 2005/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2005 on cross-border mergers of limited liability companies (31) (hereinafter the Cross-border Mergers Directive) (32) has not yet been transposed into national law.