Activites

• 2000/10/24 Final act published in Official Journal
• 2000/01/18 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T5-0010/2000 summary

    The European Parliament approves its resolution drafted by Mr. RAPKAY (PES, D) on the Commission's XXVIIIth Report on Competition Policy. The Parliament welcomes the Commission's report and the innovations in its layout, and expresses its appreciation of the excellent quality of the dialogue with the Commission. It calls on the new Commissioner for competition policy to attend regular information meetings with the Parliament. It calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the uniform application of the law in the Member States and on the Commission to involve the Parliament in the further development and implementation of competition policy. Parliament considers that the further development of competition policy must be accompanied simultaneously by a comprehensive consumer protection policy and better involvement of consumer organisations. It is, furthermore, of the opinion that competition rules must not unduly hinder Member States wishing to adopt pioneering environmental legislation in pusuit of the aims set out in Article 6 of the Treaty. The EP calls on the Commission: - to take care to ensure that no agreements detrimental to competition are drawn up between banks as regards the various methods of payment, especially in the euro area; - to implement as soon as possible the regulation authorising block exemptions, which will introduce positive and dynamic developments in particular SMEs and in the field of training; - to take effective action with a view to harmonising the rules governing the repayment of illegal state aid; - to put forward proposals for a public and regularly updated register of state aids taking into account the qualititative differences in the aids granted and to include ais in respect of which procedures have been initiated; - to publish a league table showing Member States with the highest and lowest levels of state aid; - to publish an annual document analysing the impact of State aid on competitiveness, price levels and the mobility of the factors of production; - to report to Parliament regularly on the progress made in introducing competition policy in the countries which have applied for accession to the EU; - to place greater emphasis than in the past on examining fiscal measures, as well as state aid for their effect in distorting competition; - offer the applicant countries adequate assistance in adapting their rules on competition; - submit to Parliament a report outlining its ideas on the future shape of the international dimension of competition policy. Parliament calls on the Member States to grant more aid in the fields of energy saving and environmental protection in order to achieve the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol, since these areas account for only 3% of all aid granted. Lastly, in the context of a larger role for the WTO in competition policy, the Parliament calls on the Council to instruct the Commission to conduct negotiations aimed at concluding multilateral agreements on internationalcompetition law; at the same time, it urges the Commission to incorporate uniform minimum competition standards and the establishment of independent competition authorities in all WTO member countries in the guidelines for combating practices detrimental to competition which interfere with trade and investment.�

• 1999/11/24 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A5-0078/1999
• 1999/09/13 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1999/05/28 Non-legislative basic document published
  • SEC(1999)0743 summary

    PURPOSE : to present the XXVIIIth Report on Competition Policy. CONTENT : 1998 was the last year before the Union changed over to the single currency, and the Commission naturally had to make every effort to ensure that the economic environment into which it was born was a healthy and vigorous one. In fact, in a general sense, the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) should intensify competition for three reasons : firstly, it will reinforce the positive effects of the single market programme and will result in the increase in mergers and acquisitions; secondly, it will increase price transparency which will strongly affect sectors producing certain consumer durables, such as motor vehicles; thirdly, the impact of the Euro on the market for corporate equity will have repercussions on competition in the sector of goods and services. Economic and monetary union will reduce the cost of capital, which could lead to an increase in the number of mergers. In this context, competition policy has an important role to play in safeguarding and enhancing the flexibility of markets for goods and services. During 1998, the Commission favoured actions along several main lines. It sought to consolidate the single market and to fend off attempts by firms to set artificial bounds to its development. It exercised particular vigilance with regard to practices that tend to partition markets. It fined the motor manufacturer Volkswagen ECU 102 million for obstructing trade within the Community by preventing its Italian dealers from selling Volkswagen and Audi cars to foreign customers. It also penalised the abuse of a dominant position by the Italian Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli dello Stato, which had been favouring the cigarettes it manufactured itself over cigarettes manufactured abroad. On the other hand, it implemented the first measures of refocusing the Commission's supervisory work of the services towards only those cases where the Community interest is manifest. Furthermore, the Commission took a step in its policy of modernisation when it published its communication on vertical restraints. This year saw the adoption of the regulation empowering the Commission to declare block exemptions for certain types of state aid, and securing of agreement in principle to the procedural regulation, which came at the Council meeting on industrial affairs on 16 November. The Commission has also contributed to the following of the liberalisation process in the network industries which were formerly public monopolies. It believes that the opening-up of sectors associated with the information society or the production and distribution of energy is vital to the competitiveness of the European industry and the dynamism of the single market. Lastly, the Commission lost no opportunities to tighten the links with the competition authorities of third countries because the international environment will from now on be our everyday environment.�

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: SEC(1999)0743
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A5-0078/1999
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T5-0010/2000

History

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