>Does the EU have the power to block sales of companies on national security grounds?

Not on defense and national security, that's up to individual EU member states, but the EU does veto corporate mergers and acquisitions on Competition Law (Antitrust). So just find a loophole in that and use it to prevent SUSE be taken over by non-EU nations.

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toyg an hour ago | parent | next [-]

The governments "just" doing this or that, are typically the tyrannical or unhinged variety you don't want to live under. If your law is written decently and you have a functioning judiciary, chances of a loopholes surviving scrutiny will be very low.

The European Commission could definitely ask governments (the European Council) to agree a new treaty or protocol that grants them veto powers on "federal security grounds", for sure. The European Parliament would likely rubber-stamp it too. Considering the current (and increasing) right-wing majorities across the continent, though, I find such scenario very unlikely.

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PorciiVorbesc 44 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

>The governments "just" doing this or that, are typically the tyrannical or unhinged variety you don't want to live under.

You can always "just do things" whenever you want by interpreting or changing the laws first to fit your desired goal. And so there, now it's legal, because I just changed the rules to make it so.

Same how the "we'll now have to accept all those migrants illegally crossing our border without asking our voters if its what they want" was done, they decided overnight that its legal. Or how they can just block the right wing from winning elections in order to "just protect democracy".

We're already under tyrannical rule, except the system abuse just acts on the wrong topics.

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ElevenLathe an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

As an American, EU politics is such a fascinating bizarro world. Imagine the right wingers being a bulwark against unhinged expansion of executive authority on grounds of national security! It would be like statehouse Republicans blocking the Patriot Act. Unthinkable.

	▲	toyg 40 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Well, the same in the other direction: imagine the free marketeers by definition, installing an autocrat big on isolationist policies, the dismantling of judiciary separation, and on picking winners in the market... Absurd! And still, here we are. Humans are funny and inconsistent like that.
	▲	graemep 6 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I think it demonstrates the extent to which left and right are artificial groupings that owe more to tribalism than anything rational. In the UK it was the right wing Conservative party which introduced same sex marriage. I am pretty sure the Republicans are unlikely to do that. Of course some things are clear. Privatisation is right wing, nationalisation is left wing, but you never really had the latter in the US!
	▲	nottorp 36 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		By the way liberals in EU are center right to right :)

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an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

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