European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera makes first official visit to CCA

The Croatian Competition Agency (CCA) today welcomed Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition and Commissioner for Competition, on her first official visit to the CCA since the Agency was established in 1997.

Commissioner Ribera met with Mirta Kapural, PhD, president of the Competition Council, and Branimira Kovačević, MA, deputy president of the Council, who presented the Agency’s work, achievements and priorities. Discussions also focused on current developments in the enforcement of EU competition law, the CCA’s active participation in the European Competition Network (ECN), and the excellent cooperation with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition throughout the Agency’s existence, both before and after Croatia’s accession to the European Union. Other topics included Croatia’s competition law framework, available resources, and the challenges faced by the CCA in enforcing the competition rules.

At the outset, the president and deputy president of the Council outlined the Agency’s priorities, explaining that its enforcement activities focus on sectors with the greatest impact on consumer welfare: the current priority areas being the retail food sector and the food supply chain, electronic communications, energy, construction, and digital passenger transport platforms. The Agency’s priorities also continue to focus on the most serious competition law infringements, namely restrictive agreements and abuse of dominance, as well as unfair trading practices in the food supply chain. Particular attention is given to detecting bid-rigging in public procurement procedures. At the CCA’s initiative, and with the support of the State Commission for the Supervision of Public Procurement Procedures and the Ministry of the Economy, amendments to the Public Procurement Act introduced a mandatory two-year exclusion from public procurement procedures for undertakings found by a final decision to have participated in a prohibited agreement.

The president of the Competition Council also informed the Commissioner about the proposed draft including the amendments to the Competition Act, which would bring the Croatian legal framework fully in line with the ECN+ Directive and OECD recommendations, while further aligning it with the EU acquis and enforcement practice. Particular emphasis was placed on the CCA’s position as a smaller national competition authority and the challenges it faces in terms of human, financial and technical resources. The ECN+ Directive requires Member States to ensure that national competition authorities have a sufficient number of qualified staff, as well as adequate financial, technical and technological resources.

With regard to the challenges facing the Agency, it was explained that, within its available resources, the CCA enforces EU competition rules across all national markets in Croatia. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that the Agency’s existing staffing levels cover its full range of powers and responsibilities, rather than competition law enforcement alone. In addition to enforcing the Competition Act, the CCA is responsible for enforcing the Act on the prohibition of unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food supply chain, serves as the coordinating authority for the implementation of the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), and has been proposed as the national contact point for the implementation of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR).

In this context, the importance of ensuring competitive employment conditions and further strengthening the Agency’s professional capacity was emphasised as essential to the effective exercise of all its responsibilities, in line with the requirements of the ECN+ Directive. Retaining existing expertise is also a key challenge. The discussion therefore highlighted the importance of ensuring that national competition authorities have adequate resources to enforce both national and EU competition rules effectively. For the CCA, this means continuously strengthening its professional, financial and technical resources, while creating the conditions necessary to attract and retain highly qualified experts over the long term and to develop the expertise required for the effective and independent performance of the Agency’s responsibilities at both national and European level.

The CCA actively participates in the ECN, both at the expert level through working groups and at the level of meetings of the heads of EU competition authorities. The Agency has already hosted one such meeting and will host an ECN meeting at expert level in October this year. In this context, the CCA strongly supports further strengthening and operational enhancement of cooperation between the EU national competition authorities and the European Commission. An increasing number of cases affect markets in several Member States. This is also demonstrated by the first joint unannounced inspection carried out by the CCA in cooperation with the Slovenian competition authority simultaneously in both countries.

The European Competition Network (ECN) remains one of the key mechanisms for cooperation in ensuring consistent enforcement practice across the EU, as well as for exchanging experience and facilitating mutual learning among national competition authorities and the European Commission.

Commissioner Ribera was also briefed on the CCA’s activities in the areas of the green transition and sustainability. In March 2026 the CCA organised its first roundtable, “Green Transition and Competition – Regulatory Challenges, Market Rules and a Sustainable Economy”. The event was also attended by the Croatian minister of environmental protection and green transition and the president of the Dutch competition and consumers authority, that has extensive experience and a leading role in this field.

In 2025, the Republic of Croatia marked 30 years since the adoption of its first Competition Act. In 2027, the CCA will mark 30 years since its establishment and the beginning of its operational activities. The president of the Competition Council invited Commissioner Ribera to attend the conference marking the 30th anniversary of the CCA’s establishment that will be held in Zagreb on 15 April 2027.