Ten years ago, the European Commission ordered its member states to dismantle their government interests in private corporations—like VW—and report back to Brussels. The idea has always been to create a free-trade zone within the Union; but the largest members of the European Union haven’t exactly complied.
Tuesday’s ruling by the European Court of Justice to end Germany’s VW law will help the Commission tilt at windmills like “golden shares” or “multiple voting rights” and other newish tricks that help governments protect privatized national enterprises from foreign takeover.
But regulators in Brussels, by the end of 2005, still had an internal list of 141 firms that were protected by European governments through special rights. In fact Charlie McCreevy, the Irishman responsible for enforcing European market laws at the EU Commission, has noticed a steadily decreasing tendency among member states to root out protectionism.
“Key industries” was the pivotal point in VW’s case: Europe’s Advocate General, Dámaso Ruiz-Jarabo Colomer, in his recommendation several months ago to the Court of Justice, granted Germany its right to “melancholy memories” of the postwar era, with its economic miracle—which Volkswagen all but symbolizes—but he made clear that the VW law was not in line with EU law.
The figures within EU member states who want to protect certain companies are blowing against the wind, legally, as another verdict on Wednesday showed: A last-minute attempt by the VW workers’ council to keep Porsche from listing its new holding company, “Porsche Automobile Holding SE”—which would buy a majority of Volkswagen shares—failed in a regional German court.
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