Brussels, 28/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 28 April, the European Commission launched a consultation exercise, to run until 27 May on draft best practices aimed at fostering and facilitating information sharing between national competition authorities (NCAs) within the European Union for mergers that are not subject to EU merger control but require clearance in several member states.
Mergers where cooperation is likely to be beneficial include those which have the potential to affect competition in more than one member state but which do not meet the conditions to qualify for the European one-stop shop system. Cooperation among NCAs will be useful at all stages of the review process, the substantive assessment and, where applicable, remedies, but it will be for authorities themselves to decide on a case-by-case basis whether cooperation with other NCAs could enhance the review process.
The success of cooperation will depend to a great extent on the goodwill and cooperation of the merging parties, particularly when, with the aim of increasing the overall efficiency, transparency and effectiveness of the merger review process, they notify national competition authorities of their intentions in good time and allow the NCAs to exchange confidential information.
Interested parties are invited to submit their comments until 27 May 2011 to comp-a2-mergers@ec.europa.eu. (F.G./transl.rt)