Speech

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
European Consumer and Competition Day,
Bucharest, 4 April 2019

"[..]Competition can be fragile in this digital age. Opportunities to challenge powerful companies can be few. As the special advisers make clear in their report, that means authorities need to be especially vigilant."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Anna Lindh Lecture,
Lund, 18 March 2019
"[..] The freedom which the Internet has given us is truly the great achievement of our times. But we have to understand that the idea of a totally free and equal Internet, where power is irrelevant, is nothing more than a dangerous myth."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Bundeskartellamt 19th Conference on Competition,
Berlin,
14 March 2019

"These are challenging times. [..] the answer is not to lose faith in the choices we made, sixty years ago [..] If Europe has the confidence to go on doing what we’re best at – in a way that’s adjusted to the demands of the modern world – then we have an even brighter future ahead of us."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
EU Industry Days,
6 February 2019
"We need an industrial strategy not for the few—but for all of Europe."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Mackenzie Stuart Lecture, Cambridge,
4 February 2019
"[..] Data can do great things for us - but we can’t buy those benefits at the expense of our values. We can’t trade our freedom for better maps, or our democracy for a better social media algorithm. We have a lot to gain from data – but we need to make sure that we use it in a way that is really good for society."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Youth and Leaders Summit,
Paris, 21 January 2019

"[..] Competition rules can help to make sure platforms don’t misuse their power to entrench their positions, or take over new markets. So they can help to make sure consumers get a fair deal. But on their own, they won’t change the fact that big online platforms will still have a lot of power in our lives."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Shaping Competition Policy in the Era of Digitisation,
Brussels, 17 January 2019
"We’re at a critical time, in the story of digital technology; a time when we need to decide between possible futures. There’s still hope for a future where digital technology lives up to its potential to make our lives better, where innovation is strong, where values, like fairness and democracy, are deeply embedded in the way that technology works. But it’s just as easy to imagine the opposite. And it’s not technology that will decide which of those futures we end up in. It’s the choices we make, the rules we put in place. Decades from now, people may well look back at this moment in history as the time when the decisions were taken that made their world what it is. And it’s up to us to decide if they look back with praise – or with blame."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
WELT Economic Summit,
Berlin, 9 January 2019

"[..] The success of European business can never be built at the expense of Europe’s people – their rights and freedoms, their confidence that the market serves their needs, their trust in a secure future, with good jobs and strong safety nets."

Commissioner Magrethe Vestager,
Slush, Helsinki,
4 December 2018
"It’s clear there’s no such thing as a great business model that doesn’t respect people’s rights. There’s no such thing as a great new service that depends on using people’s data in a way they’d never knowingly agree to. There’s no such thing as a great idea that will make lots of money by avoiding tax, or ignoring workers’ rights."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
OECD Global Competition Forum,
Paris, 29 November 2018

"We need organisations like the OECD to promote and achieve fairness and equality. In a globalised world, we protect these values by working together."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Hamburg Summit,
27 November 2018

"[..] The connections have given us the power – and the responsibility – to make a difference to the world around us. They’re a source of strength, not just for us and our people, but for the world as a whole."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
“What is the Future of Europe?”,
Copenhagen, 26 November 2018

"[..] Europe is the best place to live in history. And we have the chance to make sure it stays that way, for years to come. So it’s time for us all to come out of our trenches, and reach out our hands to every European who believes in a better future."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
AmCham EU 35th Competition Policy Conference,
Brussels, 22 November 2018

"[..] We all have a responsibility to help build a fairer society: Politicians, law enforcers, businesses and citizens. From my point of view, enforcing strong competition rules by the book is indeed part of that responsibility."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Chillin' Competition Conference,
Brussels, 20 November 2018

"[..]In my home country, it’s a fundamental principle of our culture, that we need to cooperate to succeed.[..] That’s what Europe is about. It’s what we do well. And it’s the way to keep on doing well, as we enter an uncharted future."

Speech by Commissioner Margrete Vestager,
Diversity, Inequality and Transformations in a Digital Age conference, Copenhagen
12 November 2018
The digital transformation of our society is a fact. And we are in a good position to manage the change in a positive way.[..] Technology should serve people and not the other way around.

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Web Summit, Lisbon,
7 November 2018
"[..] For regulators, the job isn’t just to design and to enforce the right rules. It’s to have those rules in place at the right time. It isn’t easy to know how the technologies on the horizon will affect people’s lives. But that doesn’t mean we can afford to play it safe. We can’t just sit back and wait, as the risks of those technologies start to affect people’s lives"

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Opening of the Jean Monnet Chair of the University of Lisbon,
7 November 2018
"The Chair takes the name of one of Europe's founding fathers. And it is largely thanks to Jean Monnet that we are here today talking about EU competition law, because he played a key role in its creation. [..] He saw clearly that the integration of markets would only succeed if competition was not distorted by companies or governments. He was convinced that consumers would not be able to enjoy the benefits of the future European Community unless discriminatory and anticompetitive arrangements were banned."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Terra Nova 10th Anniversary Debate,
Paris, 3 October 2018
"[..] We’ve faced bigger problems in the past, and overcome them, and made Europe the best place to live in history. But that’s only happened because of our values – our democracy and solidarity, our individual rights and our openness to cooperation.
So our first job is to fight for those values. Not just by telling people that a Europe of values is the best protection they and their children can have. It means showing them. It means listening to the worries that keep Europeans awake at night. And it means going into those elections offering real solutions, that can make those people’s lives better."

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium,
Georgetown Law School, 25 September 2018

Speech by Commissioner Margrethe Vestager,
European Competition Day,
Vienna, 24 September
“The enforcement of EU competition rules can help to make sure that the promise held out by digital technologies is not undermined by the way companies operate in these markets”.