The Competition Directorate of the European Commission has jurisdiction over mergers
that have a European dimension. In this case, both GE and Honeywell had substantial
European business interests. GE, for example, reported European revenues of $23b in
2000. Under Commissioner Mario Monti, the European Commission had taken an active
interest in merger review, including such high-profile “American” cases as
Boeing/McDonnell-Douglas and AOL/Time-Warner.