The EU will in the coming days send a statement of objections to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto over their proposed USD 116 billion joint venture, the EU's competition commissioner told Reuters.
"My services had a state of play meeting with the companies involved this week," Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in an interview late on Saturday.
"We informed both companies that we have an advanced draft of a statement of objections that probably we will send to them in the coming days," he said.
"In this statement of objections we will write down which are our concerns, our serious concerns, and they have to react."
"I cannot anticipate how this document will be finally written but it is obvious that we have concerns on this joint venture and they have to react to this statement of objections," Almunia said on the sidelines of the World Policy Conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh.
Rio and BHP -- the world's second and third biggest iron ore producers respectively -- are seeking the approval of anti-trust authorities to merge their Australian iron ore operations.
But the plan, which the firms predict will save USD 10 billion in costs, could collapse if the two companies are unable to secure anti-trust approval. Regulators in Australia, Japan, Korea and other markets are also reviewing the deal.
Under European Commission procedures, a statement of objections is used to set out why the regulator thinks a proposal is anti-competitive.
Companies can respond by offering concessions which, if accepted by the Commission, will result in the probe being dropped. If however the concessions do not satisfy the regulator, it can prohibit the deal.
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