Umut Aydin

The Challenges and Trajectories of EU Competition Policy in the Twenty-first Century

Abstract Sixty years have now passed since the signing of the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, and during that period competition policy has become firmly anchored as one of the key pillars of European integration. A regime of European competition governance has emerged that centers on the European Commission, specifically its Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP), and has matured to tackle the four constituent parts of the EU competition policy brief, cartels, monopolies, mergers and state aid. The focus and enforcement of EU competition policy is constantly being reviewed in response to new challenges and opportunities as DG COMP seeks greater consistency in competition norms and greater policy convergence both within the EU and the wider global environment. The opening article of this volume introduces the context in which substantive changes to the EU competition regime has occurred in the twenty-first century. It identifies the major drivers for such change including economic interdependence, the proliferation of national competition laws, and the current financial and economic crisis, and describes how EU competition policy has evolved in response to these challenges.

Between Domestic Factors and the EU: Explaining the Emergence of the Turkish Competition Regime

With the adoption of the Law on the Protection of Competition in 1994 and the establishment of the Turkish Competition Authority in 1997, Turkey joined the ranks of a growing number of countries that have adopted competition regimes in the last twenty years. A combination of domestic and external factors helps to account for the emergence and the evolution of the Turkish competition regime. The adoption of competition law was a key condition for Turkeys Customs Union agreement with the European Union, and this conditionality played a crucial role in the adoption of the law and the establishment of the Competition Authority by helping Turkish policy makers overcome the opposition from domestic interests. The evolution of competition policy since then, however, can best be explained by domestic institutional factors and the Turkish Competition Authoritys ties with international organizations working in the competition policy area.

Promoting Competition: European Union and the Global Competition Order

Abstract Global developments such as economic interdependence and the proliferation of national and regional competition regimes have created a complex international competition policy environment. The European Commission’s DG Competition has responded to these developments by making the international dimension of competition policy a priority since the late 1980s. It advocated for the establishment of a binding multilateral competition framework at the WTO, pursued bilateral cooperation agreements, extraterritorially applied its competition rules, and tried to export its competition policy model to its neighbors. This paper examines DG Competition’s objectives and strategies in internationalizing the EU’s competition policy, and evaluates the success of these strategies in furthering the EU’s goals in this area. The findings suggest that among all of the strategies it has tried, the DG has had most success with exporting the EU’s competition regime to other countries; however, this strategy may have reached its limits, and needs to be supplemented by multilateral efforts.