The European Commission—the European Union's executive body, with powers comparable to a combined Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice in the United States—has approved the creation of a new joint venture in renewable energy. The operation involves Plenitude, a company controlled by the Italian energy group Eni, and Société Générale, one of France’s leading banking groups, participating through its Spanish-based subsidiary, Vulturno Investments. The agreement was evaluated under the EU Merger Regulation, the regulatory framework that governs large-scale mergers and acquisitions in the European market, with the goal of preventing the formation of dominant positions or distortions of competition. According to Brussels, the new joint venture poses no antitrust risks because the parties' combined market share remains low even after the merger. The joint venture's primary focus will be on the acquisition and management of energy transition technologies such as solar plants, wind farms, and battery energy storage systems, which are rapidly growing in Europe as a result of the EU's climate goals and public and private investments in the green sector. Because there were no competitive issues, the transaction was examined under the so-called "simplified procedure", which is an accelerated review process intended for low-risk cases.