Yes, you're absolutely correct - Air Berlin has failed to file its financial statements on time....Which in every EU country is a criminal offence to be resolved by each individual country's financial and tax authorities....
It is estimated that at any moment in time over a million corporate entities around the EU ( whether major publically quoted companies such as Air Berlin, or whether Joe Soap's one-man painting and decorating company ) are late filing their accounts, but I don't recall, ever, the EU deciding that one of their zillions of commissions is going to investigate the circumstances of why one of these millions of companies is late with its filing....
So I wonder why they have now suddenly decided that it needs an EU commission to investigate the reason why Air Berlin are late filing their financial statements....
The answer is, in fact, they haven't....The EU has stated that it is a question of who controls Air Berlin, and just because Etihad have only a minority stake in Air Berlin, it doesn't mean that they don't control Air Berlin....
Shareholdings In European Airlines Face EC Scrutiny
And while they're at it, good old Lufthansa are complaining about Etihad's possible rescue of Alitalia....
And so Delta's investment in Virgin now gets dragged in as well, although it seemed OK when this shareholding was in Singapore's hands....
But without Etihad, Air Berlin is a goner....And let's just have a guess - who has most to gain from Air Berlin going under ??
Wake up at the back !!