Policies Bearing on Product Market Competition and Growth in Europe

The strength of product market competition plays an important role in economic growth as it affects economic efficiency and the allocation of resources, and can also lead to improved labour market performance. This paper examines product market competition and economic performance in the European Union. The Community’s competition rules, which apply whenever anti-competitive practices have an implication for cross-border trade, are enforced primarily by the Commission’s Directorate General for Competition, and complement national competition legislation. Reforms have been adopted recently to sharpen the toolkit and to increase the role of national authorities in the enforcement process. However, the toolkit could still be made more effective. Competition policy is complemented by, and partly overlapping with, the regulation of newly liberalised network industries. Despite the EU’s commendable efforts in this area, competition is still undermined by dominant incumbents in some ...