P6_TA(2005)0032

Competition policy (2003)

European Parliament resolution on the Commission's XXXIIIrd Report on Competition Policy — 2003 (2004/2139(INI))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the XXXIIIrd Report on Competition Policy — 2003 (SEC(2004)0658),

- having regard to Rules 112(2) and 45 of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (A6-0024/2005),

A. recalling that raising the competitiveness of European businesses is one of the key objectives of the Lisbon Strategy,

B. emphasising the need for a continued and vigorous monitoring of distortions in competition,

C. mindful of the business community's need for the highest degree of legal certainty regarding merger control policy,

D. noting in particular the significant volume of cases undertaken by the Competition Directorate-General of the Commission, where Commission decisions have either been fully accepted by the parties or upheld by the Courts,

1. Welcomes the XXXIIIrd report on Competition Policy, which highlights the major structural reforms of competition policy and enforcement taken forward under Commissioner Monti's leadership;

2. Congratulates the Commissioner on maintaining constant and vigorous monitoring of distortions in competition, while undertaking far-reaching reorganisation and renewal of the anti-trust, merger control and state aid rules and internal reorganisation of the Competition Directorate-General;

3. Welcomes the adoption of a series of acts included in the modernisation package, namely the initiatives in the field of cooperation between the various enforcers of EU competition rules — the Commission, national competition authorities and national courts; in this connection, considers that it is also worth mentioning the appointment of a Chief Competition Economist, the strengthening of the role of the Hearing Officer and the reinforcement of the cartel unit, which will reduce the time required to conclude cartel cases;

4. Regrets the need for renewal of the 'temporary defensive mechanism' by the Council justifying the granting of aid of up to EUR 100 million to shipyards in Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark as a response to unfair competition from shipyards in South Korea, and looks to an early resolution of the dispute in the World Trade Organisation, before the date of expiry of the current mechanism in March 2005;

5. Insists that the limited number of cases in which the Commission's decisions have been reviewed by the Court of Justice and set aside should not be seen as undermining confidence in the overall system of analysis and enforcement;

6. Welcomes the development of a specific chapter in the Report on Competition Policy highlighting the Commission's approach in relation to the conditions under which Member States may give financial support to those entrusted with the operation of services of general interest, and following the Commission's report to the Laeken European Council of 14 and 15 December 2001, the Green Paper on services of general interest (COM(2003)0270) adopted by the Commission in on 21 May 2003 and the Altmark judgment [1], urges the Commission to bring forward proposals to increase legal certainty, define good governance and assist national and regional authorities in complying with Articles 87 and 88 of the Treaty;

7. Urges the Commission to continue to review the operation of the judicial system in relation to competition cases, in order to consider improvements to the speed of access to justice, and in order to maximise the experience and skills of the judiciary dealing with competition cases;

8. Continues to support a more proactive role for the European Parliament in the development of competition policy through promoting co-decision powers for the Parliament, and regrets that the Commission and Council were not able to support this in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe;

9. Welcomes the revision of state aid rules reorientating the Commission's interest towards cases and issues of significance for the further development of the internal market, which has streamlined and simplified notification and the filing of complaints, and clarified further the 'de minimis' and R & D principles;

10. Welcomes the view taken by the Commission that state aid for R & D will represent an incentive for SMEs to engage in more R & D, and the consequent proposed amendment to Regulation (EC) No 70/2001 [2] on state aid for SMEs in order to include R & D aid, and calls the attention of the Commission to the differing national capacities within the Member States to engage in such programmes;

11. Urges the Commission to further develop work on the impact on private companies of emission trading mechanisms, quotas, allowances, certificates and credits under the Kyoto Protocol agreement;

12. Welcomes the environment-friendly criteria of the Commission applied in the approval of several environmental aid schemes and urges the Commission to further develop the conditions of transparency for such schemes so that they may serve as precedents for other regions and Member States;

13. Congratulates the Commission on responding positively to previous Parliament resolutions by establishing a dedicated Enforcement Unit for State Aid, charged with the responsibility of enforcing Commission decisions, particularly in the area of recovering unlawful state aid;

14. Welcomes the further development of the State Aid scoreboard in internet format as an important instrument for transparency and informing consumers of the Commission's activities;

15. Welcomes the progress towards implementing Commissioner Monti's programme for modernising the Commission's anti-trust rules, with its increased focus on investigation and penalising hard-core cartels, but expresses its concern that the 2003 Report on Competition Policy does not appear as yet to demonstrate any significant reduction in the backlog of cases under investigation by the Commission;

16. Expresses its concern at the continued failure to achieve full liberalisation in the EU gas and electricity markets;

17. Welcomes the Commission initiatives in relation to relevant markets, such as telecommunications, and the setting up of task forces between the Competition and the Information Society DGs to manage the consultation process;

18. Welcomes the Commission's appointment of a Consumer Liaison Officer in order to better develop and facilitate the Commission's dialogue with consumers;

19. Believes that the effective application of competition policy is an essential tool to achieve an efficient market structure which operates in the interests of consumers, and has a positive and significant impact upon their daily lives; wishes to emphasise that closer integration of the internal market sometimes makes it more natural to analyse the state of competition on the whole internal market, rather than on different submarkets (as has been the case in several recent merger decisions), and calls on the Commission to produce clearer guidelines on its interpretation of "the market" in such cases;

20. Welcomes the Commission's continued commitment to the European Competition Days as an important opportunity to explain the positive impact of competition policy for consumers in all parts of the EU, but calls on the national authorities hosting these conferences to integrate consumer organisations and the national media into the programme planning for the European Competition Days;

21. Welcomes the Commission's new rules on motor vehicle distribution, looks for greater progress in reducing the major variations between Member States in prices of new motor vehicles, and regrets the current evidence that these disparities remain significant;

22. Calls for further progress in relation to the motor vehicle repair market particularly in relation to access to technical information and easier availability of access to motor car spare parts;

23. Welcomes elements of the Commission's reform of the EC Merger Regulation [3], but regrets that Parliament's concerns about some elements of the proposal regarding legal certainty and fair process were not supported by the Commission;

24. Welcomes the reorganisation of the Competition Directorate-General of the Commission in the context of the merger control, particularly the restructuring along sectoral lines, the strengthening of economic assessment and greater definition concerning the role of consumers;

25. Welcomes the Commission's commitment to help the 10 new Member States to adapt rapidly to the competition rules, anti-trust legislation and, in particular, state-aid regulation and urges the Commission to pursue the process of technical assistance and cooperation;

26. Welcomes the Commission's commitment to pursue a policy of enhanced bilateral cooperation with the Community's main trading partners and to expand multilateral cooperation in the field of competition; in particular, the Commission must be congratulated for concluding cooperation agreements in competition matters with the United States, Canada and Japan;

27. Urges the Commission to continue to cooperate with OECD countries, Asian countries (with a particular focus on China) and Latin American countries;

28. Urges the Commission to pursue negotiations with the WTO on the interaction between trade and competition policy, in the spirit of the Doha Declaration of November 2001;

29. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission.

[1] Case C-280/00 Altmark Trans GmbH and Regierungspräsidium Magdeburg v. Nahverkehrsgesellschaft Altmark GmbH, and Oberbundesanwalt beim Bundesverwaltungsgericht [2003] ECR I-7747.

[2] OJ L 10, 13.1.2001, p. 33.

[3] OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1.

--------------------------------------------------