Vestager stopped the mergers but Ribera wants to bless them. Europe plays its last letter in telecos

Two months have passed since Financial Times He advanced, on the eve of MWC 2025the plan of the new European Competition Commissioner, Teresa Ribera, to rewrite the rules of the game. That short period has been enough to certify that Ribera does not look like much Margrethe Vestager. Or at least he wants to evolve his legacy not only to continue it. Where the Danish saw concentration, the Spanish sees competitive muscle.

Vestager raised the low price dogma to legislative totem. Ribera, in his first three months in office, added three axes:

1. Innovation.
2. Reinvestment.
3. And environmental and social criteria.

He has also made it clear that the price will no longer be the only Lighthouse in Brussels.

• The underlying message: a company that breathes can think about the future. An asphyxiated, no.

Why is it important. This year’s MWC was the one chosen by European telecos to close ranks and launch a joint proclamation: consolidation or inconsequence.

• Europe has 34 operators for 450 million citizens. The United States has 3 operators for 335 million.
• The stock market value of telecos in Europe has fallen 40% since 2015 with a slight recovery in recent months.
• Without scale it is difficult for investments to arrive for the 5g Stand-Alonethe universal fiber or the AI ​​at the network level.

European digital sovereignty is settled on mud.

And Ribera lands coinciding with the Clean Industrial Deal and the Draghi report claiming “continental champions” capable of standing face and Chinese. He Timing It couldn’t be better for those who want to move.

The name. Marc Murtra, about to fulfill his symbolic first hundred days in front of Telefónica, has smelled the blood:

Everything is ready to go to sign smaller fish if Brussels open the window. And Ribera is in it.

What is cooked. Three keys:

1. Domestic consolidation. Each country could go from four or five large networks to two or three. The reason: Relieve Capex duplicities.
2. Cross -border mergers. The real objective. The union Telefónica-Vodafone He has put on the table again. AND Digi Figure as tactical piece.
3. Repricing stock market. With a regulator predisposed to bless size and investment, telecos could sell a growth story, not just survival.

Narrator’s voice: Investors love growth stories and flee from survival.

Between the lines. Ribera speaks of “being able to reinvest” and “lead green standards.” Translated from Bruslense: Yes to the scale, but with environmental and social counterparts.

The turn fits with the new Brussels compass: Geoeconomy over dogma Low Cost. And the clock runs: Nvidia, Openai or Tesla will not wait for Europe to decide how much their cables cost.

The next. If Ribera converts the words into an official guide before summer, 2025 could close with the first large paneurpeo marriage of the decade.

And with the definitive confirmation that the Vestager era – define the competition only for the price of the minute – already belongs to the history books.

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Outstanding image | European Commission, Xataka