Competition weekly news summary
3 June 2016

Conferences/Speeches

  • Speech by Commissioner Vestager 'The EU State aid rules: working together for fair competition'
    High Level Forum, on State Aid Modernisation, Brussels
    3 June 2016
    "Businesses need State aid rules to protect them from unfair competition.[..] But they don’t want our rules to slow down the delivery of support that doesn't hurt competition. Businesses want us to help them invest in research, in training, in protecting the environment."
    Read full speech >
  • Speech by Commissioner Vestager 'Working together to support fair competition worldwide'
    UCL Jevons Institute, Brussels
    3 June 2016
    "As competition authorities, our work will help to decide whether opening up our economies helps to make the world a fairer place. Or whether it simply creates bigger rewards for a few.[..] And if we work together, I’m convinced that we can produce the right results."
    Read full speech >

Publications

State aid

  • Commission clears Belgian postal service compensation for bpost 2016 to 2020
    3 June 2016
    The European Commission has found Belgian plans to compensate the incumbent postal operator bpost with €1.3 billion for providing postal services of general economic interest between 2016 and 2020 to be in line with EU state aid rules.
    Read more >
  • Commission opens in-depth investigation into support for the Portuguese railway maintenance company EMEF
    2 June 2016
    Following a complaint, the European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess whether public measures in favour of the state-owned Portuguese railway maintenance company EMEF gave the company a selective advantage over its competitors, in breach of EU state aid rules.
    Read more >

Court

  • Case C-76/15 Paul Vervloet and others
    2 June 2016
    Advocat General Kokott delivered her opinion on preliminary questions referred by the Belgian Constitutional Court regarding the admission of the ARCO financial cooperatives into the Belgian deposit-guarantee scheme. In the Advocate General's view, the Belgian guarantee, granting the shareholders of the ARCO financial cooperatives the same protection as that conferred to savings deposits, is in breach of EU law.
    Read opinion>
  • Case T-426/10 Moreda-Riviere Trefilerķas vs. European Commission
    2 June 2016
    The Commission welcomes that the General Court fully dismissed the action brought by the Tycsa group for the annulment of a Commission decision of 2010 in the prestressing steel cartel case. The Commission's 2010 decision had fined 17 producers of prestressing steel for operating a cartel that lasted 18 years (from 1984 until 2002). Prestressing steel is used in construction to produce both, pre-stressed concrete and post-tensioned concrete.
    See Court of Justice case page>
    See the Courts press release>
    Read more about Commission's 2010 decision >

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Published by the Competition Directorate General of the European Commission. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Commission. Neither the Commission nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use which might be made of the above information.

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