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**The European Commission has approved the merger of Friesland Foods and Campina, subject to divestment of some parts of the new business.

**A General Meeting of Friesland Foods and the Members’ Council of Campina has also taken place and backed the merger, which will go ahead on 30 December 2008.

To meet the objections of the European Commission, the activities of Friesland Foods Fresh (fresh dairy) in Nijkerk, the cheese production plant of Campina Holland Cheese (naturally matured cheese) in Bleskensgraaf, and the Yogho Yogho and Choco Choco brands (long-life dairy drinks) in the Netherlands and Belgium will have to be sold.

These business units jointly account for revenue of about €367m, representing some 4% of the new company’s total revenue of €9.1bn.

To guarantee the availability of Dutch raw milk for third parties in the Netherlands, FrieslandCampina is required to make available annually a maximum of 1.2 billion kilos of Dutch raw milk to new or existing producers of fresh dairy products or naturally matured cheese in the Netherlands, provided they are interested in buying this milk.

Cees ’t Hart, the proposed CEO of the new company, is delighted that the European Commission has approved the merger: “The preparations for the merger have taken more than a year. During that period, we've become even more convinced that the merger is coming at the right time. Now we can actually start doing business together based on our combined innovative strength and the milk expertise of our employees. We expect to be able to grow more strongly in brands and new concepts. This not only applies to consumer products, but also to dairy ingredients.”