Communication

The aim of the protection of market competition is primarily to create benefits for consumers and equal conditions for all entrepreneurs on the market, who, acting in accordance with the existing rules and competing on the market with the quality, price and innovation of their products and services, contribute to the overall development of the economy.

Back to list

Competition policy and the Green Deal

This follows the announcement in a speech on 22 September 2020, at an event hosted by MEP Stephanie Yon-Courtin, by Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, of her intention to launch a European debate on how EU competition policy can best support the Green Deal.

As EVP Vestager said, competition policy cannot replace environmental laws or green investment. The question is rather if we can do more, to apply our rules in ways that better support the Green Deal.

We are looking for input from everyone with a stake in this issue – including from industry, from environmental groups, consumer organisations, as well as competition experts.

The call for contributions will run until 20 November 2020. The consultation documents will be made available in all official languages. This will be followed by a conference early in 2021 to bring together the different perspectives on this important topic.

Call for contributions

The European Green Deal aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy. The goal is for Europe to be the first climate neutral continent by 2050, where economic growth is decoupled from resource use. The coronavirus pandemic makes those ambitions even more relevant. The European Commission has put forward a major recovery plan for Europe to help repair the economic and social damage brought by the pandemic and to kick-start the European recovery in line with the twin green and digital transition goals.

As Executive Vice President Vestager has underlined: “To succeed, everyone in Europe will have to play their part – every individual, every public authority. And that includes competition enforcers.”

The goal of EU competition rules is to promote and protect effective competition in markets, delivering efficient outcomes to the benefit of consumers. Competitive markets encourage firms to produce at the lowest cost, to invest efficiently and to innovate and adopt more energy-efficient technologies. Such competitive pressure is a powerful incentive to use our planet’s scarce resources efficiently, and it complements environmental and climate policies and regulation aimed at internalising environmental costs. By helping to achieve efficient and competitive market outcomes, competition policy hence contributes by itself to the effectiveness of green policies. Competition policy is not in the lead when it comes to fighting climate change and protecting the environment. There are better, much more effective ways, such as regulation and taxation. Competition policy, however, can complement regulation and the question is how it could do that most effectively. The Commission is responsible for the enforcement of competition rules based on its competences under the Treaty and existing EU secondary legislation, under the close supervision of the EU Courts. This means that, short of any changes in the existing legal framework, competition policy’s contribution to the Green Deal can only take place within these clearly-defined boundaries.

The purpose of this call for contributions is to gather ideas and proposals from everyone with a stake in this issue, including competition experts, academia, industry, environmental groups and consumer organisations. The contributions will feed into a conference early next year that will bring those different perspectives together.

Contact us

You can contact us by e-mail to COMP-GREEN-DEAL@ec.europa.eu