Activities of Barbara KAPPEL related to 2018/2102(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Annual report on competition policy (debate) DE
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the Annual Report on Competition Policy PDF (537 KB) DOC (92 KB)
Amendments (23)
Amendment 3 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 a (new)
Citation 3 a (new)
– having regard of the 2017 Annual Report of DG Competition, published on 28 March 2018,
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
– having regard of Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/1084 of 14 June 2017 amending Regulation (EU) No 651/2014 as regards aid for port and airport infrastructure,
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 b (new)
Citation 10 b (new)
– having regard of the Final Report on the e-commerce sector inquiry, published on 10 May 2017,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 c (new)
Citation 10 c (new)
– having regard of the judgement in case C-411/15P Timab of 12 January 2017,
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Welcomes the Commission’s activities and efforts to ensure the effective application of competition rules in the Union2017 Report on Competition Policy (COM(2018) 482) of 18 June 2018, which can help restore a sufficient level of investment and innovation by creating a fair competitive environment;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Notes that, as a rule, the European Parliament is only involved in competition law through the consultation procedure and its influence therefore remains very limited;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1b. Stresses that Parliament should also be given co-decision powers in competition policy and regrets that this area of Union policy;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the urgent need for an effective framework tailored to the challenges of the data-drivenWelcomes that in 2017, competition policy and enforcement actions continued to contribute to the implementation of the Digital Single Market Strategy; stresses that a digital single market could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and generate € 415 billion per year; notes at the same time that traditional market models of competition policy are often inadequate for the digital single market; calls therefore, for greater attention to be paid to the new business models of digital companies and the adoption of new criteria for the assessment of digital companies; calls for greater attention to be paid to the specific market structures in the digital economy; notes in particular that digital platforms, in controlling ever-increasprocessing and storing data flows, generate considerable network externalities and economies of scale, anwhich could ultimately, by dint of excessive concentration, rent extraction on the relevant market and abusive market power, bring about market failures; distort competition;
Amendment 67 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Welcomes that as a follow-up to the e-commerce sector inquiry finalised in 2017, DG Competition will continue in 2018 to investigate anticompetitive agreements and practices in the e- commerce sector that are detrimental to a Digital Single Market;
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Welcomes that in 2017 the Commission continued its work on one of the key actions of the second pillar of the Digital Single Market strategy, i.e. the review of the telecoms regulatory framework, which has been designed to take into account changes in markets, consumer trends and technology, including measures to stimulate investment in and take-up of very high capacity networks in the European Union, new spectrum rules for mobile connectivity and 5G, as well as changes to governance, the universal service regime, end-user protection rules, and numbering and emergency communication rules;
Amendment 84 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Welcomes the adoption in 2017 of the Commission's final report of the e- commerce sector inquiry, which gathered market information in order to better understand the nature, prevalence and effects of barriers to online trade erected by companies, and to assess them in light of EU Competition rules; underlines that the report confirms that the growth of e- commerce over the last decade and, in particular, increased online price transparency and price competition, had a significant impact on companies’ distribution strategies and consumer behaviour;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Considers that the jurisdictional thresholds setting the starting point for an EU merger review, which are based on the turnovers of the target and acquiring entities, are not appropriate for the digital economy, in which value is often, for advertising purposes, represented by the number of visitors to a website; suggests that these thresholds be revised and adapted to the number of consumers impacted by mergers and the value of the related transactionsTakes note that the EU rules do not establish large time frames for antitrust investigations as is the case for formal merger review deadlines and the common practice of many national competition authorities; notes that this implies that decisions are sometimes not made within due time;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Commission to adopt guidelines to optimize the duration of antitrust investigations, in order to avoid uncertainty or excessive burden for businesses and shape a competitive landscape which is not detrimental for consumers;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Underlines the fact that barriers to entry in the digital economy are becoming increasingly insurmountable, as the more that unjust behaviour is perpetuated, the harder it gets to revert to anti-competitive effects; affirms, in this regard, that the Commission should make effective use of interim measures, while ensuring due process and the right of defence of undertakings under investigationsingle market still generate anti-competitive risks;
Amendment 143 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Reiterates its request for the Commission to examine whether banking institutions have, since the onset of the crisis, benefited from implicit subsidies and state aid through the provision of liquidity support from central banks; recalls the commitment made by Commissioner Vestager at the structured dialogue with Parliament’s ECON committee in November 2017 to reflect on possible distortions of competition arising from the ECB’s Corporate and Public Sector Purchase Programme and to report back with a qualitative answer;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Asks the Commission to come forward with a revision of the EU Merger Regulation, so that it may be vested with the powers, much as a number of Member States are at present, to adopt measures to protect the European public order and the rights and principles of the TFEU and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including environmental protectionwelcomes the summary of the submissions received during the public consultation: looks forward to the publication of the Staff Working Document;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Stresses that the Commission has an important role to play in the circular economy; Welcomes that in 2017, the Commission adopted a decision, in the first cartel case in the circular economy, imposing a total fine of EUR 68 million on four European recycling companies for having participated between 2009 and 2012 in a cartel to fix the purchase prices of scrap automotive batteries in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands1a; __________________ 1a Case 40018 Car battery recycling, Commission decision of 8 February 2017.
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13b. Welcomes that by the end of October 2017, 24 Member States had joined the Transparency Award Module, and that approximately 15000 aid grants had been published by 22 Member States; hopes that the remaining Member States will join swiftly, in order to increase transparency and scrutiny of aid awards above EUR 500 000;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. StressWelcomes the importance of endowing competition authorities with sufficient resources to carry out their work; supports, in this connection, the proposed competition strand of the single market programme under the 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework (MFF)advances made by DG Competition in continuing the analysis of its financial circuits in 2017 in order to assess the functioning of the internal control system and further improve the efficiency of its financial operations; regrets that the analysis was not finalized in 2017; urges DG Competition to finalize its review and present its findings before the competent committees in the European Parliament;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Takes note that most of the decisions concerning antitrust issues and State aid are taken at national level, and believes that the Commission should guarantee the global consistency and independence of competition policy measures within the internal market, with the support of the European Competition Network (ECN); without disregarding the competences of the National Competition Authorities (NCA);
Amendment 214 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14b. Takes note of fact that the total number of merger notifications increased by 36% between 2013 and 2017, with 380 proposed mergers notified to the Commission in 2017, constituting the second highest in the history of EU merger control, and with 377 final decisions by the Commission in 2017; recognizes that this puts a strain on the resources of the DG, and that merger assessments are becoming increasingly complex and wider in reach; is concerned about the resource implications of dealing with an increasing number of merger notifications for DG Competition;
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 c (new)
Paragraph 14 c (new)
14c. Welcomes that the Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China’s National Development and Reform Commission in 2017, starting a dialogue with China on State aid control, which will promote fair global competition; asks the Commission to regularly inform the Parliament about the progress of the dialogue;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 d (new)
Paragraph 14 d (new)
14d. Welcomes the adoption by the Commission of the Internal Control Framework (IGF) based on international good practice, aimed to ensure the achievement of policy and operational objectives in December 2017;