CRRC : EU will be objective, not naive on Alstom-Siemens deal - Moscovici

STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Commission will be objective, but not naive and will take into account future economic developments when it decides over a rail deal between industrial groups Alstom and Siemens, an EU senior official said.

"We want to take into account the evolutions of the economy of tomorrow. We are not naive," EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici told reporters on Tuesday after the Commission's weekly meeting, at which the Franco-German deal was discussed.

Antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager briefed her fellow commissioners over the merger, in an unusual discussion over competition matters prompted by strong pressure from Paris and Berlin to authorise the deal.

Moscovici, addressing reporters about the meeting, said that as a French national he was "attentive" to Paris's arguments, but stressed the decisions that will be made will be objective and "with a strategy".

Supporters of the deal say EU antitrust rules should be updated so that they can foster European industrial champions against international competition. Moscovici said the EU policy was not "obsolete".

The global rail market is dominated by China's state-owned CRRC, as this graphic shows: http://tmsnrt.rs/2y9zWfe

Moscovici repeated that the Commission would take its decision by Feb. 18.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio in Brussels; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)