05/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 4 December 2008, the European Commission launched a public consultation exercise on the operation of the current system for assessing horizontal cooperation agreements. The consultation will focus on the exemption rules per category for specialisation and R&D agreements. The Commission urges interested parties to submit their comments before 30 January 2009. The contributions will be taken into account when preparing the new system to come into force when the current rules expire on 31 December 2010. The questionnaire can be found at: http: //ec.europa.eu/ competition/consultations/2009_horizontal_agreements/index.html (C.D.)