Brussels, 23/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission decided to strengthen the role of the Hearing Officer in the merger reviews and anti-trust proceedings. This original function, created in 1982, only exists in terms of competition and has as aim, on the one hand, to safeguard the parties' right to defence (understanding of objections from the Commission, access to the dossier and possibility to answer objections orally or in writing) and, on the other hand, to guarantee the effectiveness of the procedure in order to avoid referring to the Court of Justice.
The new provisions are three fold: a) strengthen the independence of the Hearing Officer: he will now be directly attached to the cabinet of the Commissioner responsible for competition (Mr Monti in this case) and no longer with the Directorate General; b) extension of the Hearing Officer's powers: the civil servant will now be responsible for the proper unfolding of the procedure from beginning to end, namely until the decision is taken, and will ensure that the assessment of the data is done objectively by the Commission; c) publication of final report: the Hearing Officers report will now be passed on to the Member States, systematically attached to the draft Commission decision presented to the College, passed on to the parties and published in the Official Journal. Previously, this report was only passed on to the Commissioner's services. Its publication will increase the visibility and weight of actions by the Hearing Officer, thus considerably improving the transparency of the procedure. The Commission presented this last point as the most important aspect of the reform.
One the one hand the European executive has announced the launch of a procedure in view of nominating two new Hearing Officers who will then share the additional workload created by the reform. Furthermore, the Commission adds that new provisions are part of the general framework of the reform announced by Commissioner Monti a year ago and had not been decided upon following the resignation of Mr Temple-Lang last September. The British press echoed the dissension between the Commission and the Hearing Officer over the duties of the latter, dissension that had lead to his resignation, suggestion denied, at the time, by the Commission (see EUROPE of 5 September 2000, p.11).