Brussels, 22/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has just adopted its annual report on European competition policy for 2004, a year marked by the entry into force of new regulations, particularly Regulations 1/2003 on antitrust and 139/2004 on concentrations. In 2004, the Commission adopted 3 decisions on abuse of dominant positions, and imposed a record fine of EUR 497 million on Microsoft, as well as 6 decisions on cartels, involving almost 30 companies for a total amount of EUR 390 million in fines. In total, 158 new antitrust investigations were opened and 391 cases closed last year. The number of notifications of concentration cases again increased, from 212 in 2003 to 249 in 2004, far below, however, the 345 operations notified in 2000. More than half of the 242 final decisions in 2004 followed an examination according to the simplified procedure. Out of 7 probes into concentration operations, only one ended with a refusal (the merger between ENI and EDP-GDP), 4 were granted on the condition of certain commitments being made by the parties (the merger between Lagardère/Natexis/VUP, Areva/Urenco and ETC, Continental and Phoenix and Sonoco and Ahlstrom). 2 were approved without conditions. Like the previous year, 2004 also opened 8 second phase investigations. In State Aid, the reforms begun by Mario Monti continue this year and main cases focused rescues aid and company restructuring, as well as shipbuilding. (The report is available on: http: //europa.eu.int/comm/competition/annual_reports/).