According to a public notice issued on Tuesday, the European Commission has given the green light to the merger agreement signed last November between Waterford-based Dawn Meats and Elivia, the meat processing arm of the French co-op Terrena. The Commission said that its decision on the proposed concentration fell under Article 6(1)(b) of EU competition law, which states that EU authorities "shall decide not to oppose it and shall declare that it is compatible with the common market".

Dawn can now go ahead and take a 49% stake in Elivia. A spokesman for Dawn said that the EU had also cleared an option to buy up to 70% of the French company by 2019.

Elivia is the second largest beef processor in France with annual sales of €1 billion, equivalent to Dawn's own turnover. Dawn's factories are spread across Ireland and the UK, with 40% of sales coming from exports to continental Europe. The group also owns a small processing plant and employs 50 staff near Tours in central France, the region where most of Elivia's operations are located.

“In a consolidating industry, we believe that this deal brings considerable scale and knowledge sharing benefits to both parties,” Niall Browne, CEO of Dawn Meats, said in a statement. “Our scale, premium positioning and routes to market will benefit our customers and thousands of farmer suppliers in Ireland, the UK and now, via Elivia, in France.”

Terrena recently announced a three-year, €100 million investment programme to modernise Elivia's key production sites and information technology and traceability systems. The capital injection from the merger with Dawn Meats is understood to form part of that effort.