The European Union's competition policy includes all of the themes
contained in Articles 81-89 of the Treaty. The European Union
will use the competition policy to pursue the objectives of improving
enterprises' competitiveness, liberalising markets, improving
resource allocation and multiplying the choices offered to consumers.
With the introduction of the euro on 1 January 2001 and the
enlargement of the European Union to 10 new States, the prospect
for adjustment of policies on restrictive agreements and abuses,
on dominant positions, on concentrations and on State aid becomes
an essential element in the overall strategy intended to facilitate
a truly competitive common market.
Italy has always been keenly interested in this issue and has
been one of the Member States most committed in the competition
policy reform. This reform was launched by the Commission in the
year 2000 and ended in 2003 with the Italian Presidency of the
Union. The first step was the radical reform of the control of
abuses of dominant positions and of agreements. At the end of
2002, the Council adopted a new regulation that establishes the
bases for a renewal of the current system, which has been in effect
for forty years. In 2003, when it was Italy's turn to hold the
Presidency in the second half of the year, our country had the
primary responsibility to complete another major step in the process
of renewal and adjustment of the rules governing the Union's competition
policy, with the adoption of the modification of the Council regulation
no. 4064/89 relative to the control of mergers. During the first
ten years of its application, the old regulation was an effective
tool for control of mergers likely to distort competition within
the common market. The reform approved by the Council was intended
to ensure that this regulation continues to guarantee this function
in an evolving political and economic context.. In particular,
the cases of Community interest subject to notification and to
examination by several jurisdictions had already provoked an increase
in multiple notifications, and the fear that such a trend could
accelerate rapidly following enlargement of the Union. While difficult
negotiations on Commission’s proposal began under the Greek
Presidency, Italy gave the necessary impulse to reach a political
agreement in the Council by the end of the semester, in time to
enable the effectiveness of the reform before the enlargement
of the Union.
In the area of State Aid, Italy intends to move with conviction
according to the policy line established by the Stockholm Council,
by the Industry Council of December 2001 and, most recently, by
the Competition Council of November 2002 : this means that Italy
work to strengthen the trend, manifest for several years now,
towards reduction of the overall amount of State aid distributed
throughout the Union and, at the same time, towards a significant
reorientation of that aid towards horizontal objectives aimed
at cohesion. All of the Commission's most far-reaching initiatives,
in terms of simplification of regulations, of decentralisation
of controls and of the intensification of the exchange of information,
in the spirit of the open method of co-ordination defined in Lisbon,
have been relaunched and supported firmly, with particular emphasis
on research and innovation
