EU officials today brokered agreement on a long-awaited code on corporate takeovers in the 15-nation bloc, but warned arguments over details could go on for years.
The new EU rules - the result of 12 years of negotiations - are intended to facilitate cross-border bids in the region and are seen as a necessary step toward the creation of a pan-European market for financial services.
"We have now an agreement between the Council (of EU member states), the Parliament and the Commission over the takeover directive," Internal Market Commissioner Mr Frits Bolkestein said after the talks ended.
The deal, struck after a long night of talks, was immediately criticised by a key member of the European Parliament, casting doubt on whether it will ever become law. To take effect, the agreement requires endorsement by a simple majority of the assembly's 626-members in a vote in July.
But Mr Klaus-Heiner Lehne, the European Parliament's lead negotiator on the proposal, told a news conference he feared the deal would give birth to 15 different national takeover codes, resulting in a situation that would be harder to harmonise at a later date.
EU governments had pushed for a loose framework directive, giving them freedom to adopt national takeover codes with little detail, an approach the Parliament rejected, leading to months of heated negotiations on a compromise text.
Today's deal was reached less than 24 hours before the legislation would have automatically failed under fixed deadlines for agreeing disputed texts.