Brussels, 14/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - It was a case of first mission accomplished for Joaquín Almunia, Competition Commissioner-designate, who won over MEPs during his hearing on Tuesday 12 January. The former economic and foreign affairs commissioner demonstrated his expertise and showed his firmness on a number of issues, such as winding down state aid to banks and imposing fines on companies which flout competition rules.
In his opening remarks, Almunia set out his vision of a competition policy that would work for economic growth and of the “exit strategy” from current interventionist policies.
Faced with questions from all sides on using public funds to rescue banks, Almunia said, for example, to José Manuel Garcia-Margallo Y Marfil (EPP, Spain), that bailed out banks would be required to restructure and that the EU had to harmonise practices with regard to subsidies in order to create a level playing field and to avoid, what he called the “moral hazard” effect. In response to a question from Arlene McCarthy (S&D, UK), he also gave assurances that he would check to ensure that public aid was not being used to pay bonuses for bankers.
A number of companies and lawyers have been critical of the growing number of fines imposed by Neelie Kroes, the outgoing competition commissioner, on companies that have taken part in cartels or abused their dominant positions. Almunia said he wanted to continue in the same vein. Fines provided “dissuasion that had to be maintained at the correct level,” Almunia said, adding that the fines were of a “level consistent with this desire for dissuasion”. He pointed out that, only in very rare cases, did the fines reach the maximum possible of 10% of the turnover of the company concerned. He acknowledged, however, that for small companies specialising in one product, “the impact of fines is greater” than for huge diversified groups and that this was a matter that had to be kept under review.
Following on from where Kroes left off, in her crusade, Almunia said that tackling cartels, the most harmful of violations of competition laws, had to be a priority. Gianni Pittella (S&D, Italy) asked the Commissioner-designate if it would be appropriate for the Commission to consider adding administrative sanctions to its penalty arsenal, rather than rely only on financial ones. Almunia replied that the current system “has proved its mettle”, adding that administrative sanctions were currently “not on the Commission radar”.
Almunia backed the call from MEPs for Parliament to be included in drawing up EU collective redress measures. In response to a question by Jean-Paul Gauzès (EPP, France), Almunia stressed the importance of developing effective co-ordination procedures and the necessity of avoiding every form of abuse, as had happened in the US class action system.
He said that Commission conclusions on state aid to ports would be delivered in the coming months.