Brown Calls For Competition Reforms In Europe

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

21 April 2005

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Tuesday, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown revealed that one of the country's key priorities when it assumes the presidency of the European Union in July will be to reform EU competition policy.

Mr Brown explained told the newspaper that the commitment will be contained in the Labour Party's business manifesto, set to be published next week, which will state that:

"We will propose that European competition policy is more pro-actively focused on driving up competition. We will support market investigations into key sectors. We want to ensure that European competition policy is independent of politicians."

As part of this proposed reform package, the UK government would put forward plans for the creation of an independent competition authority, modelled on the European Central bank, which operates at a remove from the EC.

However, the European Commission was reportedly less than impressed by the proposals, arguing that:

"The European Commission competition department is already independent of political interference. The risk is that a stand-alone agency dealing with competition would be more susceptible to political intereference than the Commission."

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