Debate: Competition policy – annual report
Date: WEDNESDAY, 4 MAY 2022
Speaker: Margrethe Vestager
Language: EN

I just want to make a few comments. It was said quite early in the debate that Europe should not miss the innovation train, that we should actually be in the first carriage. I think that is one of the many reasons for supporting a competitive market and for supporting competition in the market, because we know from experience and from what we see that competition is one of the most important drivers.  If there is no risk that someone will come up with something better, why bother to innovate? Why not just continue doing what you have been doing and try to make the most of it? We see that, unfortunately, in some mergers, for instance, there is a risk that someone is buying the pipeline of a competing pharmaceutical product to continue the blockbuster and not enabling the new product to get to market. That, of course, is really important.  This is why, also in our merger enforcement, innovation plays a role because it’s a long time ago, if ever, that competition law enforcement was just about prices. Yes, it’s about prices, and for many families these days of course prices are important, but it is also about quality, about choice and about innovation because competition in innovation is one of the main drivers. If you look at the legislative proposals that are supporting what we do, you also see this because the DMA will enable competition and will enable businesses to get to market based on their own ideas, their work ethic, and the funding that they have available. They will not have to depend on the gatekeeper.  If you look at the AI proposal, the point of that is to create trust in technology and, by creating trust, open markets; for instance, that these fantastic public sectors that we have in Europe, they are open for the use of artificial intelligence and because of that, there is a drive to innovate in the use of artificial intelligence for a better purpose within the Union. Several speakers tonight have talked passionately about small and medium—sized businesses for very good reasons because this is not just for festive speeches, it is in everyday life that small and medium—sized businesses provide jobs, growth and innovation. If you look at everything we do, I do hope that you see that we have implemented the slogan of thinking small first, because every business starts small and a lot of businesses remain in the category of being small and medium sized. They need a fair chance in a single market. Here we need to make sure that they are not being squeezed out, dominated or held back by bigger companies.  When you look at what we can do in extraordinary times – actually during COVID, we did not suspend state-aid rules because we wanted to make sure that, while necessary aid was given to companies which were asked to close their doors and customers were asked to stay at home, so that the two couldn’t meet and, because of that, had to hibernate, that really necessary support was given in a way that would still enable the single market to function and that would limit the unlevelling of the playing field. This is why we do not suspend state-aid rules, but we make them more flexible. We enable more support to be given, but always in a way that is proportionate and necessary.  Here, if you look at what we have done in the temporary framework for the COVID pandemic, you will see that we changed it six times. We changed it because we found that the situation on the ground was changing. New needs were appearing, and of course we will do the same when we follow the use of the temporary crisis framework that we have put in place to answer the war that we have in Europe and the energy crisis that has come with it. We will look at what is happening, and we will do one more thing.  We will give guidance to companies if they need to cooperate in order to better help out in the supply chains or in a situation that may occur because of the sanctions. But, at the same time, we have sent a very clear signal that we will be vigilant and look to see if anyone is trying to take advantage of the situation because we don’t want anyone, in the shadow of war, where people are being killed, to try to make a profit that is not due.  Competition law enforcement and regulation have also been touched upon by many, and I will be the first to say that competition law enforcement alone cannot solve every competition problem. But we cannot do without it and this is why competition law enforcement and regulation must go hand in hand. We have just had a judgment from the European Court on bpost, which exactly establishes that the two can, and should, exist together. That’s a great encouragement for what we have ahead of us. On the question of connectivity, I think this is really important because this is one Union and it should not be the case that someone feels forgotten. This is, of course, why one can establish a public service obligation that can be on airline connectivity, that can be on ferry connectivity, that can be on any connectivity needed in order to make sure that, for instance, out of season, citizens who live on an island that may not have perfect connectivity can feel that they are part of this Europe that we all rely on. Last, but not least, I think it’s really important to make sure that competition rules are fit for purpose. We have had this big project of making sure that we are fit for the digital world, we’ve had this big project to make sure that we are fit for the green transition and for the green world that we have ahead of us, but we are also recognising that competition law enforcement, no matter how effective, cannot solve everything. Europe and citizens still rely on this House to set the rules of the game when it comes to social, when it comes to environment, when it comes to how we deal with things, and within that democratically legitimate framework, then to go compete in a single market that we will do our best to preserve every day. Thank you very much for this debate. It has indeed been encouraging to be part of it.