PARIS (Reuters) - Essilor (>> Essilor International) and Luxottica (>> Luxottica Group) said they planned to co-operate with the European Commission to ensure their planned merger goes ahead, after EU anti-trust regulators said they would investigate the proposed 46 billion euro (40.34 billion pounds) deal.

"The companies reaffirm the objective to close the transaction around the end of the year, in co-operation with the relevant authorities," Essilor and Luxottica said in a joint statement.

Earlier, EU antitrust regulators said they would investigate whether the proposed merger of Italian eyewear maker Luxottica and French lenses maker Essilor would push up prices and drive out rivals from the market.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta. Editing by Jane Merriman)

Stocks treated in this article : Essilor International, Luxottica Group