EU competition policy in a global world

This chapter reviews forces shaping current competition laws and initiatives, particularly those easing convergence between the USA and EU. Convergence may ease when countries are developed, but objectives and means may differ, generating tensions and shaping further law developments. It discusses state aid control, an EU specificity ensuring competition policy’s primacy over industrial policy and preventing wasteful “subsidy wars.” However, it’s accused of hurting “European champions.” The chapter examines current competition policy challenges, focusing on state aid control’s new developments, the State Aid Action Plan, and aid to innovation. It considers its potential to address market failures but risks lax enforcement in the name of “aid to innovation.” This danger is particularly problematic in an era of rising emerging-economy powers (like Brazil, Russia, India, and China) with different competition-policy philosophies. While the chapter discusses the potential for a global competition policy based on common ground, it stresses potential tensions from state interests by public corporations and sovereign funds from these emerging countries.

The European Union and Global Governance, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group