Strong competition authorities are essential for boosting badly needed investment and private sector growth in South East Europe, said Frédéric Jenny, chair of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) Competition Committee. Jenny is one of the international experts participating at a three-day meeting of the Stability Pact Investment Compact in Belgrade, aimed at establishing effective competition regimes and improving regional cooperation.
"Strong competition authorities are a must for the countries of South Eastern Europe", said Jenny. "Having the right regulatory tools, applying them in a correct and effective way, having sufficient institutional capacity, and being recognised as an advocate for competition principles to guide regulatory reform are four cornerstones of an effective competition regime."
Co-organised by the Antimonopoly Commission of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the OECD, the talks, from 25-27 March, brought together competition authority leaders from Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYR Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro as well as competition experts from the OECD, European Commission, France, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom. The meeting also provided an opportunity for business leaders and representatives of other government agencies to discuss ways of establishing effective competition regimes in emerging market economies.
The Belgrade meeting was the third in a series organised within the framework of the Investment Compact. In previous meetings, competition leaders from South East Europe had examined ways of creating competition in markets where none existed. They had also analysed effective legal tools needed to fight attempts to eliminate or distort competition. With the help of competition experts from OECD Member countries, experts from the South East European countries then drew up action plans to deal with the major barriers to the creation of competitive markets.
The Investment Compact's regional flagship initiative on competition law and policy was launched in June 2001 to help the competition authorities of South East Europe in identifying and solving problems, many of which are typical of economies in transition:

• In some cases, former state monopolies have been replaced with private operators given exclusive rights for an important period. After that period, it may be difficult to establish a truly competitive market.
  
• One important role of competition authorities is to advocate pro-competitive solutions in the design of government policy. In the South East Europe region, that role is not everywhere sufficiently recognised and supported.
  
• Traditional anti-trust enforcement must be strengthened in the South East Europe region. Several of these countries need more effective procedural tools for disclosing and deterring hard-core cartels and other harmful practices.

At the Belgrade meeting, the competition authorities from South East Europe underlined the importance of continuing the work of this initiative which aims to undertake a comprehensive review of progress in competitive reform in the region.

For further information please contact:
Regional Flagship Initiative on Competition Law and Policy:
Lennart Goranson, Principal Administrator, Competition Division, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Tel.: (33 1) 45 24 91 44; Fax: (33 1) 45 24 96 95; e-mail: lennart.goranson@oecd.org

Investment Compact for South East Europe:
Pamela Edwards, Information Coordinator, Investment Compact Team, OECD
Tel.: (33 1) 45 24 91 25; Fax: (33 1) 45 24 93 35; e-mail: pamela.edwards@oecd.org

For background information:
COMPETITION IN SOUTH EAST EUROPE: An Interim Report on the Regional Flagship Initiative Competition Law and Policy