Single Market Programme
DG Competition (DG COMP) operates a grants programme dedicated to the training of national judges in EU competition law under the Competition policy part of the Single Market Programme (SMP Competition) which focuses on making the internal market more effective, including through enhanced competition policy. Under this strand, each year, calls for proposal are launched in the area of EU competition law training. The present call concerns national or transnational training projects in the area of EU competition law. Action grants are awarded to support and promote judicial training with a view to foster a common legal and judicial culture of competition law.
The objective of this programme is to co-finance projects aiming to train national judges in the context of enforcing European competition rules. This includes public and private enforcement of both the Antitrust rules and the State aid rules, thereby increasing the knowledge and know-how of national judges. The final aim is to ensure a coherent and consistent application of EU competition law by national courts.
These objectives can best be achieved through projects which specifically focus on the role of national judges in the application of EU competition law, their particular needs and work environments and pre-existing training and knowledge.
Useful links:
Should you have any query in relation to training of judges in EU competition law, COMP-TRAINING-JUDGES
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (contact us).
Justice Programme 2014 -2020
Since 2002, DG COMP operates a grants programme dedicated to the training of national judges in EU competition law. The main goal of the Training of Judges Programme is to support a consistent and coherent application of EU competition law by national courts.
The Training of national judges on EU competition law is part of the Justice Programme 2014 -2020, contributing to support and promote judicial training, including language training on legal terminology, with a view to fostering a common legal and judicial culture.
Under the last programming period (2014-2020) 56 projects have been co-financed, involving approximately 3200 national judges.
DG COMP also provided targeted training activities to National Judges via a service contract with the Academy of European Law - ERA. For more information please visit the dedicated website. All training materials (including the e-presentations) are freely accessible here in a wide range of languages (EN/DE/FR/PT/IT/EE/EL/ES/HR/LT/SI).
Useful links:
Upcoming events, actions and trainings for judges
Title: Public and Private Enforcement of EU Competition Law in the Age of Big Data
Organisers: University of Turin
Dates: 30 November – 1 December 2023
Place: Court of Milan, Italy
Content: see the flyer
Audience: National judges from eligible countries, applications should be sent by 20/11/23 to comp [dot] eu [dot] terunito [dot] it (comp[dot]eu[dot]ter[at]unito[dot]it) and will be treated on a first-come-first-served basis
Language: English-Italian simultaneous translation service will be provided.
Title: Stepping up with the economics of competition law: between competition and regulation
Organisers: The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) and OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition
Dates: 30 November – 1 December 2023
Place: Budapest, Hungary
Content: see the flyer
Audience: National judges dealing with competition law issues from the 27 EU Member States.
Language: English
Title: ENTraNCE for Judges 2024
Organisers: European University Institute
Place: Fiesole (Florence), Italy
Content: Recent developments in antitrust damages actions (see also the project website)
Dates: 28 February – 1 March 2024 (residential training); 25-27 September 2024 (final workshop).
Content: Recent developments in antitrust damages actions (see the flyer)
Audience: National judges from the 27 EU Member States, as well as to judges of third countries that participate in the Single Market Programme (SMP), namely Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Language: English
Title: SUNAJUST – Supporting National Judges on State Aid
Organisers: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Place: Various (see the flyer)
Dates: Various from February 2024 to January 2025 (see the flyer)
Content: Notion of State aid ex Article 107(1) TFEU, the concept of an undertaking, the standstill obligation ex Article 108(3) TFEU, the concept of new and unlawful aid, the notification procedures, the role of the European Commission as public enforcer of EU State aid law, the concept of de minimis aid, the exceptions to the obligation to notify new aid to the Commission, the role of national courts as enforcers of the EU State aid rules, the cooperation tools provided by EU law to assist national courts in fulfilling this role, and the State aid Modernisation programme of the Commission.
Audience: National judges from the 27 EU Member States, as well as to judges of third countries that participate in the Single Market Programme (SMP), namely Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
Language: English
Title: Conference on EU Competition Law and digital markets development
Organisers: The European Women Lawyers’ Association - Bulgaria
Dates: 13 June – 14 June 2024
Place: Sofia, Bulgaria
Content: Recent case law and decisional practice regarding digital markets in the context of EU competition law, see the flyer
Audience: National judges, prosecutors, apprentice national judges, and the staff of national courts of EU Member States, in particular from Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Germany and Romania
Language: English
Contact:officeewla [dot] bg (office[at]ewla[dot]bg)
For more information about events organised with the Association of European Competition Law Judges (AECLJ), please see here.