European Community competition policy 2000.

Abstract

The year 2000 has been a crucial year for compe-tition policy in many respects.The way firms conduct business and compete witheach other is rapidly evolving and competitionauthorities need to respond to these changes. Muchof the activity in year 2000 was devoted to adapt-ing competition policy to the new social and eco-nomic environment and to preparing it for the chal-lenges ahead. In taking up my functions I was aware that competition enforcement was not a static exerciseand committed myself to improve our policy on issues which I felt were of key importance:greater involvement of consumers in competi-tion matters; enhanced transparency of our pol-icy, notably on State aid; modernisation of ourrules through better integration of economic rea-soning in the legal framework; and, finally, anincreased awareness of the international dimen-sion of competition.In presenting this year’s Annual Report onCompetition Policy I would like to emphasise theprogress achieved in those areas.