lederhosen - the EU has a formal policy whereby if one company in a merger/acquisition would very likely go bankrupt, then the normal competition rules simply do not apply. The basic idea being that it's better to keep jobs in the EU than let non-EU competitors benefit. Of course the EU never wants to be criticised in the press for letting thousands of people lose their jobs for following rules. Thus if Lufthansa Group were to buy large chunks of Air Berlin, Brussels would very likely give permission with little or no conditions