EC's Almunia Talks Tough on Telecoms, but Coy on Soccer State Aid

After granting conditional approval to Telefonica SA's purchase of the German E-Plus mobile communication business on Wednesday, EU competition chief Joaquin Almunia underscores that Brussels remains best-placed to review cross-border telecoms deal in Europe. However, he says that in other cases involving purely national players, the EC would be "very happy" to refer reviews to member states who prefer to do the vetting themselves. As the World Cup moves to the semi-finals, Almunia declined to give a status report on the EC's investigation into state aid to soccer clubs in Spain and in the Netherlands, saying that "as a Spaniard" he should not talk about football right now.