European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication on competition rules relating to horizontal co-operation agreements (C5-0304/2000 - 2000/2154(COS))
Date: 2000-09-21
Institutions: Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, European Parliament
Subjects: competition law, control of restrictive practices, cooperation agreement, horizontal agreement

C 146/106

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

17.5.2001

Thursday 21 September 2000

14. Competition rules

A5-0217/2000

European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication on competition rules relating
to horizontal co-operation agreements (C5-0304/2000   2000/2154(COS))

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the Commission communication pursuant to Article 5 of Council Regulation (EEC)
No 2821/71 of 20 December 1971 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of
agreements, decisions and concerted practices modified by Regulation (EEC) No 2743/72 (C5-0304/
2000) (1),

(cid:1) having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,

(cid:1) having regard to the report of the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

(A5-0217/2000),

A.

B.

C.

considering that in the field of anti-trust and mergers and vertical restraints it is the practice that draft
texts are sent to the European Parliament before they are published, even in the absence of any official
legal obligation,

convinced of the importance of extending such practice to the field of horizontal co-operation agree-
ment,

aware of the necessity to modify the current legislative framework and practices in order to take into
consideration the changing economy as far as research and development and specialisation agreements
and other horizontal agreements are concerned,

1. Welcomes the proposal of the Commission to assess horizontal co-operation agreements on the basis
of an economic approach, within the context of the Commission’s wide-ranging reform of Competition
policy;

Expresses its concern at

2.
the opinion chosen by the Commission for dealing with horizontal
restraints, which differs from that used for vertical restraints. In this case, instead of a single exemption
regulation by category, there are two specific draft regulations which do not cover all the exempted
restraints, together with a set of guidelines covering many agreements not referred to in the regulations,
which implies different legal treatment for various types of agreement;

Considers that some of the agreements included in the guidelines, such as those on purchasing and

3.
marketing agreements, should be included in an exemption regulation by category;

4.
Believes that the maximum duration for exemption in cases where the results are jointly exploited
should be increased from five years as proposed in the regulation to ten years, in order to provide legal
certainty and security to the parties in respect of significant R & D projects;

Calls on the Commission to consider the new drafts as an intermediate step in the development of a

5.
comprehensive block exemption regulation for horizontal restraints;

6.
Expresses its concern at the Commission’s proposed exclusive use of market share as the measure of
market power, and calls on the Commission to examine additional means of more accurately assessing
such market power;

7. Welcomes the Commission’s proposals to move to adopt an economic approach in relation the
assessment of horizontal agreements, but urges the Commission for improved clarification of the provi-
sions governing whether horizontal or vertical guidelines should be applied;

(1) OJ C 118, 27.4.2000, p. 3.

17.5.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 146/107

Thursday 21 September 2000

8.
Calls on the Commission to make it perfectly clear, by including them in the guidelines, that
reciprocal or unilateral agreements on supply (‘trade supplies’) are not affected by the ban laid down in
Article 81(1);

9.
Recognises the need to prevent the re-nationalisation of EU competition law and urges the Commis-
sion to discourage national competition authorities from undertaking a second consideration of such
exempted agreements under their own national law;

Expresses its concern that guidelines 122 and 141 set an arbitrary market power threshold of 15 %,

10.
and urges the Commission to increase this threshold to a minimum figure of 20 %;

Calls on the Commission to increase the length of the transitional period for introduction of these

11.
regulations to two years;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and Commission and the parlia-

12.
ments of the Member States.

15. Complementarity between development cooperation policies

A5-0227/2000

European Parliament resolution on the Commission communication on complementarity between
Community and Member State policies on development cooperation (COM(1999) 218   C5-0179/
1999   1999/2156(COS))

The European Parliament,

(cid:1) having regard to the Commission communication (COM(1999) 218 (cid:1) C5-0179/1999),

(cid:1) having regard to Rule 47(1) of its Rules of Procedure,

(cid:1) having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation (A5-0227/2000),

A. having regard to its resolutions of 28 October 1993 on increased coordination of the development aid
provided by the Member States and the Community (1), 21 February 1997 on the communication
from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on complementarity between the
Community’s development cooperation policy and the policies of the Member States (2) and 17 Febru-
ary 2000 on the coherence of the various policies (3),

B. whereas Article 177 of the EC Treaty states that Community policy in the sphere of development

cooperation shall be complementary to the policies pursued by the Member States,

C. having regard to the Council resolution of 21 May 1999 on complementarity,

D. whereas Article 180 of the EC Treaty states that the Community and the Member States shall coordi-
nate their policies on development cooperation and consult each other on their aid programmes,
including in international organisations and during international conferences,

E. whereas the European Union is the world’s largest donor of public development aid,

F. whereas the complementarity of development policies must form part of an overall strategy aimed

also at ensuring the consistency and coordination of these policies,

(1) OJ C 315, 22.11.1993, p. 250.
(2) OJ C 85, 17.3.1997, p. 178.
(3)
‘Texts Adopted’, Item 7.