In spite of Brussels and The Hague, Hungary becomes the national champion
The Dutch government has protested with Hungarian officials after the decision in Budapest to block the sale of the local unit of Aegon NV, part of the Vienna Insurance Group AG, which was supposed to benefit a Dutch group, but is instead been blocked with the application of a golden power by the Hungarian government.
The matter was communicated through diplomatic channels, that is, in an official way, as was done in the old days. Both the Dutch and Hungarian authorities declined to comment, as did Aegon. Vienna Insurance said negotiations are still ongoing with the government government.
Hungary this month declined to approve the key part of an 830 million ($ 1 billion) sale of Aegon's Central and Eastern European operations to Vienna Insurance. While governments across Europe routinely block deals to prevent market monopolies, save jobs or for national security reasons, the Orban administration's intervention raised concern because it didn't seem to fit those categories.
Instead, it fits into Hungary's strategy of creating national corporate champions, including in the financial sector where the merger of three banks is underway. The government has also recently accelerated efforts to reshape the economy with moves such as moving resources to foundations with close ties to the ruling party.
In practice, Budapest doesn't care enough about European policies and the single market, considering instead it is necessary for the country that there are companies that are solid enough to be able to compete at least on a continental level. In the end, a Hungarian does not have much to gain if all his insurances are French, German or Italian. Not a very European way of seeing, but very useful for the government.
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The article In the face of Brussels and The Hague, Hungary becomes the national champion comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/alla-faccia-di-bruxelles-e-de-laia-lungheria-si-fa-il-campione-nazionale/ on Tue, 20 Apr 2021 13:31:57 +0000.