Directorate General for Competition
Mission
The mission of the Directorate General for Competition is to enforce the competition
rules of the Community Treaties, in order to ensure that competition in the
EU market is not distorted and that markets operate as efficiently as possible,
thereby contributing to the welfare of consumers and to the competitiveness
of the European economy.
Competition policy is now broadly recognized as a crucial factor for the creation
of proper conditions for economic growth and prosperity, since it influences
investment decisions, business acquisitions, pricing policies and economic performance.
Competition policy helps promote a better allocation of resources and strengthen
the competitiveness of European industry to the benefit of the citizens.
The work of DG COMP is essential to the achievement of the EU’s strategic
objectives as expressed in the “Community Lisbon Program”
, because it makes a significant contribution to the efficient functioning of
the internal market and promotes the conditions necessary to stimulate
knowledge and innovation, to make Europe a more attractive
place to invest and work, and to create more and better jobs.
The principal instruments available to DG COMP for accomplishing its mission
are:
a) The enforcement of competition rules on antitrust, mergers, State
infringements and State aid control. Merger control and individual
proceedings against firms or Member States having infringed the competition
rules allow the prevention or remedy of specific competition problems, like
cartels or abuses of dominant position. Competition enforcement has a positive
effect for consumers, because effective competition contributes to a larger
choice of products and services, lower prices and better quality. Moreover,
effective competition creates incentives for business to invest in research
and development towards innovation, thus stimulating knowledge and contributing
to the creation of more and better jobs. Finally, enforcement actions have a
further positive impact in that they act as a deterrent to potential infringers.
DG COMP’s enforcement strategy is built around four basic principles:
- Prioritization of enforcement actions;
- Economic approach to the assessment of cases;
- Effective remedies and deterrence;
- Networking and cooperation, both within the EU through the European Competition Network (ECN), and at international level.
b) Sector inquiries and market monitoring. Informal market
monitoring and formal sector inquiries launched under Article 17 of Regulation
1/2003 are indispensable instruments to feed the Commission’s enforcement
activities, especially in sectors characterized by particular complexities.
In such cases, only a deep understanding of the functioning and dynamics of
the specific market can reveal the existence of competition problems that call
for enforcement actions. Formal sector inquiries may be launched in markets
where: (i) on the basis of informal market monitoring carried out, it emerges
that markets are not working effectively and where the reasons for this dysfunction
remain unclear; (ii) only a more systematic fact-finding exercise could help
to clarify the matter; (iii) the use of formal investigative powers is necessary
to gather the information; (iv) the competition problem is likely to concern
several economic actors and/or to be related to the existence of close interactions
among them.
c) Policy development. The area of policy development encompasses
a range of activities, including in particular the design and review of procedural
and substantive competition rules; the provision of internal guidance for the
Commission’s enforcement activities; the coordination of the actions of
competent Member States’ authorities; and the external communication of
EU competition policy.
This activity involves designing competition rules that are based on a sound
legal and economic assessment of market realities and practices. It thus allows
the Commission to focus on major obstacles to competition at the EU level and
reduces the risk that firms or Member States are prevented from engaging in
legitimate or efficiency-enhancing behaviour.
The comprehensive reform of State aid rules begun in 2005 or the review of enforcement
practices towards abuses of dominant position, for example, aim to ensure a
more sophisticated economic approach, as well as better regulation and more
effective enforcement.
d) Competition advocacy. Competition advocacy, as opposed
to enforcement, refers to actions aimed at influencing regulatory processes
both at EU and national level to ensure better and pro-competitive regulations.
Competition advocacy within the European institutions can take different forms,
including the participation in the preparation of other DGs’ regulatory
proposals and cases, public consultations, reports on the state of competition,
promotion of best practices, etc.
e) International cooperation. The increasing integration of
the world economy makes it essential for the Commission to cooperate with competition
authorities outside the EU, in particular to address the rise in multi-jurisdictional
mergers and anti-competitive conduct across borders. By creating tools for bilateral
and multilateral co-operation, the Commission aims to promote international
convergence of competition policy in general, with the aim of ensuring the effective
enforcement of the EU competition rules in an international environment and
avoiding conflicts with the competition authorities of other countries. Such
convergence is also beneficial to businesses that operate in several jurisdictions.
In the framework of enlargement, the main objective of international cooperation
is to assist the candidate countries to meet the conditions for EU accession
in the competition and especially in the State aid policy area. The result of
this activity can be seen in the fact that, by the time of their accession to
the EU on 01 May 2004, the ten new Member States had established competition
regimes on a level with those of the EU-15.
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