The draft merger guidelines: a discussion with Daniele Calisti

• Department of Law

The Competition Law Working Group and Law, Rationalism, and Complexity Working Group are pleased to welcome Daniele Calisti (DG Competition, European Commission) for a discussion on draft merger guidelines.

Abstract: 

The review of the merger guidelines kicked off in 2025, and it was advertised as the most significant development in EU merger control in two decades. The Commission quickly moved to publish discussion papers on key areas of reform in Spring 2025, and a draft of the new Guidelines in Spring 2026, with the intention of finalizing the process by the end of the year. This steered a broad discussion in the field, which run in parallel to a broader political reflection on how the objectives of merger policy align with broader political objectives of the Union, in a world characterized by novel challenges. The draft Guidelines introduce new concepts, chief among them competitiveness and resilience, but they seem to be structurally designed to capture a more ‘dynamic’ approach to merger analysis, both on the side of harm and benefits brought by mergers in fast-developing markets, and in settings where innovation and investment are real drivers of competitive interaction.

Speaker:

Daniele Calisti, who leads the team at DG Competition working on this initiative, will join a discussion with the competition group on the drivers of reform, the key novelties in the draft, and discuss the most pressing questions raised by the publication of the draft Guidelines.