The first inter-institutional negotiation session (trialogue) between representatives of the European Parliament and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 17 April, to discuss the proposed directive aiming to provide the national competition authorities (NCA) with the resources they need to implement EU competition law, allowed the parties to identify the main political points to be dealt with over the course of the next meetings.
These points concern guarantees of rights of defence and redress, the independence and resources of the NCAs, the fines handed down to companies and leniency measures. The other points will be dealt with at technical level.
During the exchange, both Andreas Schwab (EPP, Germany), Parliament's rapporteur on the dossier, and the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council expressed their hopes of reaching an agreement as soon as possible. The Presidency would like the dossier to be concluded before the end of its term in office, to conclude at the end of June, and a European source told us that it may take just three trialogue sessions to reach agreement at political level. The second trialogue session is scheduled for 14 May.
Readers may recall that the Commission presented its proposal on 22 March 2017 (see EUROPE 11751). The MEPs on Parliament's economic and financial affairs ('ECON') committee agreed on their common position on 27 February (see EUROPE 11970), while the ambassadors of the member states to the European Union (Coreper) gave the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council a mandate to represent them in the trialogue sessions on Wednesday 28 March (see EUROPE 11992). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)