The European Union is on the cusp of enacting its most significant relaxation of merger control rules in decades, a move designed to empower European companies to better compete on the global stage against formidable rivals from the United States and China. Draft guidelines, reportedly seen by the Financial Times, signal a fundamental shift in the European Commission's approach to reviewing corporate deals, with a deliberate emphasis now to be placed on "innovation, investment and resilience of the internal market." This potential recalibration of competition policy marks a broader evolution in European political and economic thinking, driven by a growing imperative to foster "European champions" capable of achieving the scale and innovation necessary for international leadership....