Brussels, 12/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, Mario Monti, Competition Commissioner, demonstrated before the European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs how fully determined he was to continue the fight against cartels. He said they were the "worst violations against competition rules" that spare no sector. Mr Monti affirmed that the aim is to consolidate the good results of 2001 and to intensify the fight against cartels. He went on to announce the creation of a second unit specialised in combating this kind of infringement. He said a decision to increase resources for this action considerably has been taken, and that five or six decisions on this should be announced by the end of the year. The number of decisions taken in 2002 will thus be almost identical to the number in 2001, which was a record year, and there should be the same development again in the year 2003. These good results do not mean that cartels are a recent phenomenon but that the fight against them has improved, mainly through better organisation at the Commission, increased resources, and the setting in place of the "leniency" programme which calls for better cooperation between companies and the Commission, he said. Mario Monti welcomed, on this occasion, the very good results of this policy which, if the conditions are met, may give companies that show good will total immunity from fines. Since 1996, out of a total of 24 decisions to impose fines, companies cooperated in 17 cases. In all, over 80 companies decided to cooperate with the Commission, added the Commissioner, who pointed out that some improvements will be made to the programme, mainly concerning the speed of the procedure. It will thus be easier (for companies) to gain complete immunity, he said, which will give greater legal security to the benefit of the applicant. As far as fines are concerned, he recalled in a few figures the importance of the amounts received. Thus, between 1969 (when the Commission took the first decision regarding the fight against cartels) and 2001, 57 decisions were adopted for a total amount of EUR 3.3 billion in fines, of which 2.6 billion were imposed between 1996 and 2001, and 1.8 billion for the year 2001 alone. These funds will swell the Community budget, entailing a reduction in the contribution to be made by Member States, said Mr Monti. He spoke of the need for closer international cooperation, firstly at the intra-Community level, maintaining close contact with the national competition authorities, and then in a bilateral way ("we have always had good bilateral relations with the United States and Canada regarding the fight against cartels", he stressed). A cooperation agreement should be signed in June 2003 with Japan to enter into effect in July the same year, while talks are underway with Korea, Indonesia and Australia, he announced. Finally, at multilateral level, he cited the OECD as an instrument "which remains a working base", as well as the ICN (International Competition Network), created in October 2001 and which is to meet for the first time this months, as well as the WTO (World Trade Organisation).
Mario Monti then put questions to MEPs under the chairmanship of Philippe Herzog (United Left, France), who mainly asked whether the Steel Code was well adjusted to the situation of candidate counties and more especially to Poland and the Czech Republic, "which need to create sites, not close them". Mr Monti acknowledged the fact that State aid was a very important aspect of accession negotiations and that Poland in particular had made an effort, but "somewhat late in the day" and that it was not yet sufficient. "Internal market rules must be respected", he recalled. Alain Lipietz (Greens, France), rapporteur on competition policy, welcomed the work of the Commission on competition matters, the "only European policy that is based on a firm theory unchallenged by consumers". In this respect, he pointed out that "what the consumer really wants is not necessarily a good price but also the existence of a service that sometimes can only be given through a State monopoly". He cited the confused situation of UMTS licenses ("if there are too many people applying, organisation is not possible and this leads to paralysis"). Mr Monti replied that the liberalisation of the telecommunications market had allowed the quality of services to be improved and prices to be reduced. He stressed the special efforts made at the level of access to the local loop and the inquiries currently being carried out with regard to roaming. As far as the Commission's policy on UMTS is concerned, Mr Monti recalled the favourable provisional decision that has just been taken by the relevant services regarding T-Mobile and MMO2, which authorise network sharing agreements between operators (see EUROPE of 11 September).
He said that a few months ago, they wouldn't have agreed because it flew in the face of consumer interests. Theresa Villiers, British Tory, said she was impatient for car prices to come down in the UK, echoed in this by Christoph Werner Konrad (CDU). How are you planning to implement the reform? She asked. Monti replied that the regulation has been adopted an the implementation stage was now beginning. He said that he too was quite impatient about seeing prices come down, but couldn't set a date for price cuts. Another British Tory, Jonathan Evans, asked Monti about the aid the British government is planning to give British Energy. Monti said that the Commission had received notification from the British government the day before and had held an informal meeting with British representatives last week to discuss the possible options. They would see whether the aid could be authorised, he added. Benedetto Della Vedova (Lista Bonino, Italy) asked why it was difficult for the EU and the US to start cooperating in combatting cartels, to which Monti answered that the problem lay in the exchange of confidential information (which is not allowed).