Brussels vs national capitals The Commission has been in talks with Spain over the case since last year. After the complaint, the Spanish government will have two months to respond. After that, the Commission can challenge the Spanish government at the EU’s top court, in a procedure which could last years and result in major
It began last year, when Milanese banking giant UniCredit angered Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government by attempting to take over crosstown rival BPM, which Meloni had hoped to merge with the partially bailed-out Tuscan lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena. In response, Rome deployed screening tools known as the ‘golden power’ — whose purpose is
Rome did so by invoking its “golden power,” which was originally designed to stop foreign takeovers from threatening national security. That move did not go unnoticed in Brussels, where officials opened two distinct probes into the matter, led respectively by the financial services and the competition directorates. It has also triggered an exchange under the