John Kerry, Orrin Hatch and 57 other senators have written to the European Commission accusing it of taking too long to approve Oracle's takeover of Sun in order to deliberately damage US business.

In an open letter Senator John Kerry (Mass) said: "The EC is within its sovereign rights to set the rules for operation in its market [thanks John], but with our Department of Justice having made a compelling case that the merger does not pose a threat to competition, it is fair to ask the EC for the basis on which a delay on decision making is warranted and to make a decision one way or the other.”

Orrin Hatch was even blunter. He said: "I have become increasingly concerned about the growing body of evidence that foreign regulatory agencies are unfairly using their review processes to impede the business of American corporations.”

The lobbying letter goes onto to claim that MySQL only generates €17m in turnover compared to "competitors with capitalisations of tens of billions of Euros".

The letter ends with a warning that Sun's position is getting ever more precarious as the inquiry goes on, and there are increasing concerns over the future of its thousands of staff. Therefore the Senators ask the Commission to finish its investigation as quickly as possible.

We asked the Commission for a response to these allegations but it is far too polite to oblige.

Observers have noted that Oracle asked for the latest delay to proceedings and its actions over the summer did not help speed the approval process.

The full letter is available here. ®