Mr. Pitofsky said during one of his frequent visits to Brussels last week. ''We can share documents with the permission of the parties,'' he said. ''We can certainly share theories of anti-competitive effect. And we try to share views about remedies. The thing that's most interesting is that it happens almost every day. People are on the phone all the time, and there is a constant stream of faxes going between Brussels and Washington. In a valedictory proposal before announcing his resignation last week as the Justice Department's antitrust chief, Joel Klein called on Americans and Europeans to put their weight behind a new agency that would coordinate global antitrust policies.
Bilateral relationships are indispensable but insufficient.
Proper coordination between nations is indispensable to ensure our credibility. The U.S. initiative reflects the way the rush by many companies to go global has altered the stakes of the regulatory game and demonstrated the European Union's new clout in helping to police the activities of U.S. business. Mr. Klein also noted that there were European mergers that carried such significance that they could warrant scrutiny for their impact in the United States. Indeed, the merger boom shows no signs of slowing down. Deals are getting bigger for several reasons, not least because of increased share prices caused by the long rise in stock markets and the relative ease in funding megadeals with new financing options,'' said Peter Sutherland, a former European commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs International.