Related items

The revised Merger Guidelines1 (‘Guidelines’) should ensure that the EU merger control framework supports competitiveness, innovation and investment while preserving legal certainty, predictability and effective competition. The Guidelines should remain firmly anchored in the significant impediment of effective competition (SIEC) test, apply resilience and scale considerations in a headquarters-neutral and effects-based manner, and provide clearer analytical and evidentiary standards for resilience assessments and the new theories of harm.

The Guidelines should recognise the benefits of scale where these deliver demonstrable advantages for EU consumers, apply the innovation shield consistently across all acquirers, maintain appropriate safe harbours and ensure a balanced and symmetrical assessment of harms and benefits. The Guidelines should also strengthen predictability across overlapping transaction review regimes and provide greater certainty for both EU and non-EU investors. Together, these refinements would help ensure that merger control contributes to competitiveness, innovation and economic growth while maintaining a transparent and proportionate enforcement framework.

Meta’s open-source Canopy Height Maps helped the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre improve its 2020 Global Forest Cover map, demonstrating how artificial intelligence can strengthen Europe’s ability to monitor forests and advance climate and biodiversity goals. Developed with the World Resources Institute, the maps use Meta’s DINO self-supervised computer vision model to estimate tree height from satellite imagery. This helped researchers apply the five-metre threshold used in many international forest definitions and better distinguish forests from other tree-covered land, including agricultural tree crops. The resulting product, available through the EU Forest Observatory, provides one of the most comprehensive open views of global forest cover. Read more on Invested in Europe.

How can Europe strengthen its digital resilience while remaining open to the partnerships that drive AI innovation? On Wednesday, 17 June, Malte Lohan, CEO, AmCham EU, addressed this at a conference organised by the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU in Nicosia, Cyprus. Discussions focused on how Europe can build a more resilient digital ecosystem while remaining an attractive destination for investment and innovation. Mr Lohan underlined that secure supply chains and trusted partnerships are essential to Europe’s AI competitiveness. He also highlighted the role of US businesses as committed partners in helping Europe build and compete globally, while stressing the need for balanced policies that strengthen resilience and give companies the confidence to invest in Europe.