The European Committee of Practitioners on Takeover Regulation has officially been formed, and is preparing to issue a report later this month.

The European Union decided to form the panel after the European Takeover Directive failed to pass the crucial vote last year. EU ministers had been working on the proposals for 12 years, but because an equal amount of people voted for and against the directive, it could not be implemented. At the time sources close to the efforts blamed the directive's failure on German politicians who were more keen than their European counterparts to guard against hostile takeovers.