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EU: Vestager defends her decisions, including Alstom-Siemens

By  |  February 26, 2019

Happy with her decision to block a landmark rail merger between Alstom and Siemens, Vestager not giving up on her ambition of another stint in Brussels, reported Politico.

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    Vestager has repeatedly said that she would like to stay on for a second term as competition commissioner, but many officials in Brussels see her as an ideal candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission president in the fall reported Politico. A recent poll of 1,769 EU professionals identified her as the runaway star of the Commission.

    When asked whether she thinks she’ll survive into the next Commission despite the vitriol from Paris and Berlin, she insisted she has no immediate plans to move out of her pied-à-terre in Brussels.

    “I don’t know. I haven’t sent in — how do you say? — ending my lease, of my apartment,” she told POLITICO in an interview.

    Vestager argued that having done a “good job” on cases such as the Alstom-Siemens merger would ultimately hold her in good stead for the future. Brushing aside the Franco-German demands that she allow the creation of a European rail champion, Vestager argued that the tie-up would have created a behemoth that would have harmed consumers across Europe.

    Full Content: Politico

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