Brussels, 16/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The 30th annual report on competition policy, which the European Commission published on Tuesday, indicates that the sector was marked by intense activity in 2000, to the extent that the works towards updating and modernising the Community rules and practices in the field of agreements, abuse of dominant position and mergers, continued. Moreover, the European executive had to tackle numerous important mergers and acquisitions of great complexity. The report also indicates that, in 2000, the number of new cases totalled 1,206: 564 concerning State aid, 345 merger notifications and 297 antitrust cases. The global figure remains generally stable (1,249 cases in 1999), which is translated into a net fall in notifications in the antitrust sector following the adoption of several block exemption regulations. However, the Commission notes an 18% increase in merger notifications. The report is available on the Internet at the following address: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/competition/index_en.html.