This study has been commissioned by the Competition Directorate- General of the European Commission (from hereon DG Competition) to develop “a detailed methodological approach for the ex-post review of European Commission decisions in the field of merger control, namely for assessing the...

Um den Richtern in den Mitgliedstaaten bei der Anwendung des Beihilferechts zu helfen, hat dieGeneraldirektion Wettbewerb die wichtigsten EU-Vorschriften für staatliche Beihilfen und dieentsprechenden Orientierungshilfen der Kommission zusammengestellt. Andere Sprachfassungen dieserUnterlagen...

This is a report on aspects of the interface between competition law and patent law. Competition authorities have long been aware of the potentially difficult relationship between these two bodies of Law. At the level of the EU, this relationship has already been abundantly discussed in both the...

Central and East European countries (CEEC) differ significantly with regards to their economic performance despite the fact that external policy prescriptions are very similar in all these countries. Extreme diversity and fragility in the performance of the main economic variables such as GDP...

The coming enlargement of the European Union is an opportunity and a challenge for taking decisions on a substantial reform of its institutional framework. After the negative experience of the past Intergovernmental Conferences leading to the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice, the preparation of...

On 1 May 2004 the EU will enlarge to 25 member states. Member states are uncertain what they will gain or lose from enlargement and they are concerned about the implications for the functioning of the EU. Talk is even of enlargement as a u0093leap in the darku0094. The reports in this study deal...