Current Issues of E.U. Competition Law: The New Competition Enforcement Regime, The Symposium on European Competition Law

On May 1, 2004, two major reforms of the EC competition enforcement regime are expected to enter into force: the modernization of antitrust enforcement, based on Regulation 1/2003,1 and the review of the European merger control system. In this contribution, I will outline the main principles underlying these reforms. In Part I, I will focus on the instruments the Commission intends to adopt early in 2004 in order to guarantee the efficient functioning of Regulation 1/2003, the so-called modernization package. Subsequently, in Part II, I will present the guiding principles of the future merger control in Europe, as they result from the modifications to the current merger control regulation that the Council agreed upon in November 2003. In addition to these two major reforms, the Commission also is reviewing the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation. In Part III, I will describe the main features of that draft regulation that is also supposed to enter into force on May 1, 2004.