I agree.

What I wrote applies just as much to IAG and Air France-KLM. I am perfectly happy to discuss which of the three should be allowed to acquire which airline.

That even applies to IAG’s attempt to take over UX, even if in that case there were at least some legitimate concerns about the market situation in Spain.

An economic policy based on direct or indirect prohibitions should be used only in genuinely exceptional cases. The EU has not had such a case so far. That, however, has not stopped it from imposing direct and indirect prohibitions on a regular basis. In many cases, those prohibitions have amounted to nothing more than extremely expensive measures that strengthen the economies of other regions of the world rather than Europe’s own.