On Tuesday 21 January the Robert Schuman Foundation presented a report on the reform of European competition policy, the details and effectiveness of which are now being debated, particularly since the failure of the Alstom/Siemens merger project (see EUROPE 12188/1).
This report, written by Bruno Deffains, professor of economics, Olivier d'Ormesson, a lawyer specialising in competition law, and Thomas Perroud, professor of public law, questions "the inadequacy, or even obsolescence, of the existing competition mechanisms".
The authors point out that these European systems are now facing new challenges, such as the upheavals brought about by the digital economy and the competition faced by European companies from non-Member States.
The report sets out a series of proposals aimed at "seeking both economic efficiency in the relationship between competition policy and industrial policy, while respecting the Community rules of the game".
The authors suggest, among other things, that the Directorate General for Competition, when opening an in-depth merger investigation, should make a proposal to the College of Commissioners "so as to take, where appropriate, exceptionally, decisions that would include industrial, employment or competitiveness policy objectives", explains Bruno Deffains. They also propose the creation of a "European DARPA", dedicated to undertaking political and industrial actions likely to lead to innovative and competitive projects on a European scale.
The Director General of the Directorate General for Competition, Olivier Guersent, present at the presentation of the report by the Schuman Foundation at the Brussels Press Club, considered "interesting" the desire of the authors of the report to restore industrial competitiveness without simply "twisting the standards of competition law, but by providing the means to create and develop a powerful industry in Europe".
However, he warned against those who would aspire to "a standard of competition law that would allow us to be extremely hard on the Chinese and Americans, but quite soft on European companies, especially if they are French or German". "In a state governed by the rule of law, such a variable geometry standard is not a legal standard", he added. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki, intern)