Enforcement of competition rules in the EU and the world
Addressing the 12th annual conference of the International Competition Network, ICN (Warsaw, 24 April 2013), Joaquín Almunia, Commission Vice-President responsible for Competition underlined evolutionary pressure of globalisation on competition. Enforcement of competition rules must take into consideration the challenges facing national economies and societies in the EU and around the world.
It is an important and difficult task to implement efficiently competition rules in modern economy, which has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Some international organizations provide assistance in this noble task.
On the one hand, it is the European Commission and the other agencies of the EU, being members of the European Competition Network, ECN. On the other hand, there are numerous participants from developing countries and emerging markets.
The competition rules’ enforcement must take into consideration the challenges that present state of economies and societies around the world face.
When the EU was created, the challenge was rebuilding an efficient market economy as the firm ground that would guarantee peace and democracy in Europe.
When the Berlin wall fell down, the task was opening the door for the reunification of the European continent
Since its establishment in 2001, the ICN has grown year after year and presently, under the chairmanship of Eduardo Pérez Motta, it includes 127 member agencies representing 111member states around the world, including EU states.
The ICN explore active position in competition issues and in the importance of a competition-friendly environment in national and regional strategies towards boosting growth. The success of ICN reflects the increasing relevance of competition enforcement throughout the world. Its reports and recommended practices represent a very useful guidance for states. The ICN annual conferences have become one of the main global events for enforcers and representatives of the legal and business communities (one of the clearest success stories is the one of the Polish competition agency, which is hosting the present annual meeting in Warsaw.
When the ICN was created (which was a logical consequence of globalization), its aim was to promote cooperation amongst competition agencies, including from emerging and developing countries. During the twelve years since the first ICN Conference, many changes have had a profound influence on the priorities and tools of competition policy:
technological change continue to drive the expansion of the digital economy;
the growth of the service sector, waves of liberalisation, and the privatisation of network industries;
climate change and the strategies to fight it rise in the global agenda, with consequences on traditional industries.
But, probably, the most significant present development feature is the increasing economic integration on a world scale. In practice it means the spectacular growth in foreign direct investment, which passed from 6.5 % of world GDP in 1980 to over 30 % before the onset of this long crisis.
There is a definite expansion of world trade, which has risen on average by 5.3% a year for the past two decades. These trends have been affected by the global slowdown, but the fact remains that value chains have been created over the past years that span the entire world.
Numerous other factors do not produce either a component or a service from another country. Before the crisis, trade in intermediate goods was about 60 per cent of the total trade in goods.
But the largest effect of globalisation – and not only for competition authorities – is the rise of new relevant economic players on the international scene.
Eugene Eteris, BC, Baltic-course.com
