Challenges in EU competition policy

Abstract

This paper puts forward some challenges facing European Competition Policy. It starts out with the premises that European Competition Policy has been one of the great achievements of European Integration. However, there are several areas of competition policy that remain to be challenging, especially in terms of their economic impact on consumers, markets, and firms. Specifically, the paper addresses four areas: (1) efficiencies in merger control properly, (2) market definition, (3) the role of distortions of competition in state aid control, and (4) the balance between competition policy and regulation.