EU Antitrust Chief: Unsure She Will Review Telefonica-O2

BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- European Union antitrust Commissioner Neelie Kroes Monday said she hadn't decided whether she or one of her peers would review Spanish firm Telefonica SA's $31.4 billion takeover bid for O2 PLC.

Kroes has a potential conflict of interest in the deal. Before taking up her post in Brussels, she served on the board of U.K.-based O2, among several other European companies.

In cases where Kroes has a conflict of interest, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Charlie McCreevy will take her place, the commission said in June.

Kroes previously withdrew from a price-fixing investigation involving O2. She also stepped back from the review of A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S' takeover of Royal P&O Nedlloyd because she had served on P&O's board.

McCreevy replaced Commission President Jose Manuel Barrosso as Kroes' designated stand-in after the former Portuguese Prime Minister was shown to have his own conflicts of interest. Barrosso was forced to remove himself from the P&O case after reports surfaced of his vacations on a Greek shipping-magnate's yacht.

Barrosso last November salvaged Kroes' nomination as antitrust chief, quelling concerns in the European Parliament over her eligibility by promising to relieve her of any case that raised conflict-of-interest worries.

-By Adam Cohen, Dow Jones Newswires; +322 741 1486; adam.cohen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 21st November 2005