A competition policy at the heart of EU’s competitiveness

Key points

The EESC:

• stresses that State aid can reliably support EU companies in their transition efforts, leveraging the massive investments needed to achieve this collective goal. To avoid the negative impact on the EU’s competitiveness of the dispersion of state aid among Member States, it is essential to ensure that public support is used as efficiently as possible, enhancing spillovers and reinforcing European value chains;
• emphasises that merger assessment could evolve to further take into consideration the specific nature of markets where infrastructure investments, innovation or sustainability play a crucial role. Furthermore, a solution should be put in place to allow for the control of innovation-driven mergers that today do not fall under the Commission Merger Regulation thresholds. Mergers should never be used to defend national interests and all stakeholders' views should be taken into consideration in merger analysis;
• recommends that the review of the rules on Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) must build a tool with a true European approach that ensures that such tools are real game changers and the European Competitiveness Fund must be designed and deployed with a European perspective;
• points out that businesses need visibility and legal certainty. While new competition approaches are developed, further efforts should be devoted to streamline antitrust, merger and state aid procedures and create clear guidelines. An approach based on already existing tools to deepen the single market should be prioritised.