COMPETITION POLICY : MEPS WANT BIGGER SAY.

Dutch MEP Sophia in't Veld (ALDE) suggests new ways that could be used by the European Commission to take forward competition policy. Her draft resolution - adopted by the European Parliament's Committee on Economic Affairs (ECON), on 23 February, and presented to the plenary on 8 March in Strasbourg - calls for Parliament to be closely involved in the development of competition policy, particularly through "the introduction of a co-legislative role and the requirement to keep it regularly informed on all initiatives taken". The resolution follows on from the Commission's 2008 report on competition policy.

More specifically, it asks the Commission "to inform Parliament during the course of 2010 on what specific action in the field of competition it intends to take as a result of entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty and to report annually on follow-up to its recommendations and explain any departure from them".

Parliament sets the tone with this text: it has every intention of addressing this issue, crucial for economic recovery, and lets the Commission know that it is under surveillance. MEPs attach particular importance to the monitoring of state aid and wish to ensure that these support mechanisms are not used to protect national industries at the expense of the internal market.

According to the draft resolution, empirical analyses show that guarantees on bank funding as a response by states to the financial crisis led to certain effects and distortions of competition, such as a decrease in...