Brussels, 25/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 23 June, barely hours after the European Council ended, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes published a press release reacting to the inclusion of a protocol on the internal market and competition in the future European treaty. This protocol was to compensate the removal, as requested by France, of the reference to “free and undistorted competition” as one of the objectives of the European Union (see EUROPE 9453). Ms Kroes said: “An internal market without competition rules would be an empty shell - nice words, but no concrete results. The protocol on the internal market and competition agreed at the European Council clearly repeats that competition policy is fundamental to the internal market. It retains the existing competition rules which have served us so well for 50 years. It reconfirms the European Commission's duties as an independent competition enforcement authority for Europe. The Commission will continue to enforce Europe's competition rules firmly and fairly: to bust cartels and monopolies, to vet mergers, to control state subsidies. That is in the interests of the internal market. It is in the interests of European citizens and consumers”.
The very short protocol says that, given that the internal market has a system which guarantees that competition is not distorted, member states agree that, for this purpose, the European Union should, if necessary, take measures under the terms of the arrangements in the Treaties. It invokes Article 308 which allows the EU to take action to achieve one of its objectives without there being provision in the Treaty for the powers to act required. According to an opinion from the legal service of the Council, dated Friday 22 June, the interpretation of EU objectives has been interpreted “widely”, in order to cover all purposes and objectives coming within the general framework of the Treaty, and not only to cover those listed in the specific Article on objectives. Using the regulation setting up the Agency on Fundamental Rights as an example, the Council legal service considers that the removal of the reference to free and undistorted competition from among the EU objectives “would not prevent the EU legislator to act in order to: - 'establish an internal market' and, - that the activities of the Union 'shall include (…) the adoption of an economic policy which is based (…) on the internal market (…) and conducted with the principle of an open market economy with free competition'”. It says that the future intergovernmental conference could, “for reasons of transparency”, deem it appropriate to accompany the text of the future treaty with a “declaration” stating that “with regard to the establishment of an internal market …, the Conference confirms that the Union will, if necessary, take action under Article 308 to ensure that competition is not distorted”.
During the 2005 referendum campaign on the European treaty in France, “No” supporters on the left of the French political spectrum regularly denounced this reference to “free and undistorted competition” as a symbol of an (ultra)liberal Europe. (mb)