SUBMIT IMAGE: Maersk CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Soren Skou participates in press conference at the business’s head office in Copenhagen, Denmark May 24, 2019. REUTERS/Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen/File Photo

COPENHAGEN, Jan 15 (Reuters)– Strict EU enforcement of competitors policies protects against the advancement of the worldwide champs required to take on Chinese and also united state firms, the head of delivering business Maersk alerted in a meeting.

“Is it really a good idea that we don’t allow the creation of a European global champion? In doing so, we risk being outperformed by a Chinese company, over which the European Union has no influence,” Maersk CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Soren Skou informed Danish company everyday Finans.

A Maersk spokesperson verified his remarks to Reuters.

Skou belongs to the European Round Table for Industry (ERT), an entrance hall team of 55 Chief executive officers and also chairs of huge European firms. Last month, the team advised the EU to establish a brand-new approach to boost worldwide competition.

The calls followed Brussels in 2014 obstructed a merging of the rail departments of Siemens and also Alstom.

The collapse of the offer triggered Germany and also France to ask for an overhaul of EU competitors plan to far better fulfill worldwide obstacles.

EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager claimed at the time she had actually obstructed the merging to safeguard competitors in the European train market, disregarding Siemens and also Alstom’s debate concerning combining to take on their larger Chinese state-owned competing CRRC in the European market.

“Competition policy should not be just about protecting consumers. That is super important, but if it does not allow us to build the right European companies that can compete globally, it could become a huge problem for the EU in the long run,” Skou claimed.

“We cannot allow the United States and China to win the global technology race, while we spend our time discussing issues that belong to industries of the last century.”

In feedback to his remarks, a European Commission spokesperson informed Reuters that EU plan had “not impeded the creation of European champions”.

“Over the years, the commission has cleared numerous large mergers that created European champions or allowed them to grow, such as Peugeot’s takeover of Opel and InBev’s acquisition of SABMiller,” the spokesperson claimed.

She included that Siemens and also Alstom were currently worldwide champs in the rail market which a merging was not required for them to be able to complete worldwide. (Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and also Nick Macfie)

( c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019.