WRITTEN QUESTION E-1148/01 by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission. State enterprises and competition.
Date: 2001-04-10
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: competition law, dominant position, public contract, public sector, restriction on competition

C 318 E/214

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

13.11.2001

(2001/C 318 E/233)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1148/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(10 April 2001)

Subject: State enterprises and competition

1. Will
enterprises within each Member State are operating in contested or contestable markets?

the Commission estimate what part of

the remaining State-owned and State-controlled

2. Will it describe the principal obstacles to competition in the remaining part?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(7 June 2001)

1.
The Commission has no statistics about market shares of State-owned or State-controlled undertak-
ings operating in contested or contestable markets in the Member States. Moreover, since the structure of
these markets varies between Member States as well as sectors and is naturally also subject to constant
change, the Commission is not in a position to provide a reliable estimate of such market shares.

2.
The fact that an enterprise is State-owned or State-controlled does not in itself constitute an obstacle
to competition. While Article 295 (ex Article 222) of the EC Treaty obliges the Commission to remain
neutral as to the question whether public undertakings should be privatised, or private undertakings should
be nationalised, the EC Treaty (notably Article 86 (ex Article 90)) makes it clear that public undertakings
have to respect Community competition law like any other undertakings, and that Member States are not
allowed to use their public undertakings in order to restrict competition or to infringe their duties under
the internal market rules. The EC Treaty and secondary legislation prohibit undertakings, be they private or
public, to enter into restrictive agreements or to abuse dominant positions, and they control that mergers
do not lead to the creation or strengthening of dominant positions.

On this basis, it is not possible to distinguish in a general manner obstacles to competition which are
specific for State-owned or State-controlled undertakings. The Commission remains nevertheless
committed to use its various instruments to progressively dismantle obstacles to competition which
remain in various sectors and markets, as well as to prevent the emergence of any new restrictions of
competition.

(2001/C 318 E/234)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1149/01

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(10 April 2001)

Subject: Funding costs of German banks

Will the Commission estimate, for any reasonable period, the funding costs in both the money market and
in the capital markets of the German Landesbanks compared with the funding costs of the largest three
privately-owned banks in Germany?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(7 June 2001)

The Commission is currently examining the system of state guarantees for German public law credit
institutions ((cid:145)Anstaltslast(cid:146) and (cid:145)Gew(cid:228)hrtr(cid:228)gerhaftung(cid:146)) under the state aid rules of the EC Treaty. To the
extent necessary for correctly applying these rules the Commission will assess the advantages deriving from
these guarantees for the credit institutions in question. However, it cannot be said at the current stage
whether the investigation will require the Commission to estimate the actual funding costs of the credit
institutions in question and compare them with those of the largest three privately-owned banks in
Germany.