Activites

• 2000/10/24 Final act published in Official Journal
• 2000/01/18 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0009/2000 summary

    In adopting the report by Mr von Wogau (EPP/ED, D), the European Parliament adopts the resolution on the Commission White Paper on modernisation of the rules implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the EC Treaty with some amendments. The European Parliament: - urges the Commission to set up a conference on competition issues in the EU; - stresses that the modernisation of the existing system must not impair legal certainty or the consistent application of competition rules in the Community, and draws attention in this regard to its resolution of 18 July 1997 and opinions of 15 April 1999 on the Commission's Green Paper on vertical restraints and the ensuing regulations; - considers it necessary that the Commission should assist the national authorities and courts by means of group exemption regulations, guidelines and notices; - calls on the Commission to monitor the quality of competition legislation in the Member States, in order to create a level playing field on the internal market; - considers it necessary to clarify further the rules on small and medium-sized enterprises and to protect such enterprises from possibly dubious penalty procedures, so that only wilful and grossly negligent violations of the cartel prohibition are penalised with fines; - considers that, as part of the modernisation process, the application of competition rules by the Commission would gain further in efficiency and consistency if competition issues relating to all sectors were dealt with by a single Directorate-General, and calls therefore for competition issues relating to agriculture, fisheries, transport, coal and energy to be transferred to the Directorate-General for Competition; - emphasises that the Commission's annual report must include all the developments and decisions that are essential for the Community andthat will take place in the Member States after decentralisation.�

• 1999/11/24 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0069/1999
• #2214
• 1999/11/09 Council Meeting
  • 2214
• 1999/09/13 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1999/04/28 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(1999)0101 summary

    PURPOSE : to modernise the rules implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the EC Treaty (Commission Programme 99/027). CONTENT : given this new Community and global economic environment, the continued application of Regulation No 17, as drawn up in 1962, with its highly centralised system of prior authorisation, is no longer consistent with the effective supervision of competition. This White Paper sets out the Commission's views on the subject and is intended to seek reactions from all interested parties by the 30/09/1999, a prequisite for the formal presentation of a new regulation to the Council. In this White Paper, the Commission discusses several options for reform. It proposes a system which meets the objectives of rigorous enforcement of competition law, effective decentralisation, simplification of procedures and uniform application of law and policy development throughout the EU. The proposed reform involves the abolition of the notification and exemption system and is replaced by a Council Regulation which would render the exemption rule of Article 85(3) directly applicable without prior decision by the Commission. Article 85 as a whole would be applied by the Commission, national competition authorities and national courts, as is already the case for Article 85(1) and 86. This reform would allow the Commission to refocus its activities on the most serious infringements of Community law in cases with a Community interest. It would pave the way for decentralised application of the EC competition rules by national authorities and courts and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and compliance costs for industry. It would also stimulate the application of the EC competition rules by national authorities. In the new system, the Commission would keep a leading role in determining EC competition policy. It would continue to adopt Article 85 and 86. The Commission would also continue to adopt prohibition decisions and positive decisions to set out guidance for the implementation of these provisions. The Commission would maintain the power to remove a case from the jurisdiction of national competition authorities and to deal with a case itself if there is a risk of divergent policy. There should also be a clear obligation for national courts to avoid conflicts with Commission decisions.�

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(1999)0101
• Debate in Council: 2214
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0069/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0009/2000

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)