MUNICH Pompous statements by politicians are a constant feature of the integration process in the European Union. But, when it comes to the crunch, the nigglers carry the day. The past 48 hours were days of the petty-minded once again.

The European Parliament (EP) Thursday rejected the so-called EU takeover directive that was intended to create harmonized rules for cross-border corporate acquisitions in Europe. That is not good news for Europe.

Experts and governments had worked on the directive for more than ten years. It matches that on the eve of the European Parliament's decision, the attorney-general of the European Court of Justice announced that he considered national special regulations for joint stock companies - such as gold shares linked to privileged voting rights - legally in order.

Such rules do not violate European Union law, he said. It thus has become probable that in a few months' time the court will dismiss the complaints which the Brussels-based EU Commission had striven for against Belgium, France and Portugal. In those countries, the state is able to block company takeovers. Therefore, these special rules are a thorn in the flesh of the commission.

Once again, a pale light has fallen on the governments which would like to push through special national regulations. The result is an EU legal tangle in which the interests of individual states are hardly able to survive. However, the attorney-general has to give the law its due and not the wishes of the commission.

The German government, in particular, played a dubious role. It helped to work on the takeover directive for years. The directive proposes that a company's board of directors cannot speak out against a hostile takeover unless it has the express approval of the shareholders to do so. However, German company bosses including Volkswagen Head Ferdinand Piech came to understand this spring that the rule runs contrary to their interests.

Piech and the others interceded with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Schroeder apparently had no idea what German civil servants were preparing there in Brussels and he immediately spoke out against the directive.

The EU partners were affronted. Shortly afterward, Italy's Berlusconi government joined the opponents and the sentiment in favor of the directive deteriorated. Now the work has to resume from scratch. It is to be hoped that the governments, including Germany's, then take this important issue more seriously and soon create a rule that corresponds to the requirements of a modern economy, DPA reported.