Brussels, 30/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided on the first major re-organisation of its Directorate General for Competition, prompted by the modernisation of the EU's anti-trust rules, and reforms in merger and state aid control. Commissioner Monti has promised that this reorganisation, the first for thirteen years, will be finished by 1 May 2004. This is the date for the accession of the new Member States and will therefore increase the efficiency of the Commission's competition law enforcement in an enlarged Union of 25 members.
The new organisation of DG Competition is based on a sector-specific organisation of merger control. Merger control units will be integrated into four sector-specific antitrust Directorates A smaller Merger Task Force will remain to ensure effective co-ordination of merger control across the DG. The sector-specific responsibilities of anti-trust and state aid units have also been revised with a view to balancing their workload. Finally, a new unit has been created devoted to the enforcement of the Commission's state aids decisions and recovering aid that has been illegally obtained.
Commissioner Monti explained to the press that the current structure of DG Competition was no longer the most suitable way of initiating action and that it was no longer ideal, especially with the abolition of the notification system. He stressed that DG Competition would assume a new role, as knowledge of industry and market structures was more than important procedures.
This re-organisation therefore aims at enhancing sectoral knowledge of markets in view ensuring effective use of the Department's staff resources and increased flexibility in their allocation between merger and anti-trust work. One of the new structure's objectives will be to strengthen internal decision-making procedures. The creation of a team headed by a new Chief Competition Economist, reporting directly to the Director General, aims to strengthen in-house economic expertise, subsequently introducing systematic internal scrutiny of the issue.
The most recent judgements of the Court of First Instance have drawn attention to the issue of decisions taken by the Commission recently that cast light on the weaknesses in the examination procedure of DG Competition according to the old model, recognised Commissioner Monti, notably in regard to the obligation of respecting tight deadlines, which made it virtually impossible for competition services to draft sufficiently detailed decision, which resulted in insufficient detail being afforded to economic aspects of the analysis and the absence of a systematic confrontation of points of view that allowed merger parties to be informed about the objections being formulated by third parties very early on in the process.