European Competition Day
As part of European Competition day 2009 the Swedish Presidency of the European Union will be hosting a meeting in Stockholm tilted: Welfare through efficient markets.
The announcement states:
Ever since 2000, the country holding the Presidency has arranged a European Competition Day in order to explain the benefits of competition to European citizens. The theme of the conference during the Swedish Presidency will be ‘Welfare through efficient markets’ and the aim is to provide knowledge of what competition policy signifies in a broad sense to citizens, companies and organisations. Further, discussions will be held on how consumers and the national economy can benefit from competition between companies, how companies can be enabled to compete on equal terms, and how actions that restrict competition can be eliminated.
The Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications has published a support document titled: Competition – lower prices and higher quality through efficient markets, which states on page 2:
“Competition on equal, fair terms
The Swedish Presidency of the EU emphasizes the importance of efficient markets in enabling companies to operate competitively on equal and fair terms. Sound rules governing the private and public sectors must therefore apply. One means of ensuring this are the measures taken by the Swedish Government to deal with the problems arising when public actors engage in business operations that distort market competition and in doing so, hinder private businesses. To create the conditions for more small companies to grow and run their businesses, the Swedish Government has recently presented a bill to the Riksdag, proposing that the Competition Act be supplemented by regulations allowing the Stockholm City Court, on an application from the Swedish Competition Authority, to prohibit the state, a municipality or a county council from applying certain procedures in their sales activities. A municipality or a county council may also be prohibited from pursuing activities that are not compatible with municipal competence. The aim is to deter public actors from serious infringements that damage competition and the economy. Such infringements make it impossible for private companies with more efficient production to compete. Clear rules are needed for when and how it should be permitted for state actors to persue business operations in competition with private companies in the market. Confidence in the regulatory framework must be strong.”
PSI Alliance calls for fairness
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