Competition issues

Single Market Review:
During 1997 EUR-OP and Kogan Page have been progressively publishing the titles in the major new series Single Market Review. This is a set of thirty nine volumes detailing the results of an exercise undertaken by the European Commission in 1996 assessing the progress made in implementing the Single Market Programme (SMP). The thirty nine volumes look at specific business sectors or Single Market issues, plus a business survey. Each report has been compiled by leading subject experts and co-ordinated by the Commission.

The first titles published in the series were described in 'Recent publications of interest' in European Access, No.3, 5 and 6, 1997. Recently, there has been a positive flood of new titles, brief details of which are noted below.

European Commission, DG XV/II
Competition issues
The Single Market Review, Subseries V:
Impact on Competition and Scale Effects, Vol.3
EC/Kogan Page, 1997
ISBN: 92-827-8803-2(EC)/ 0-7494-2336-6(Kogan Page)
EC, No.C1-71-96-003-EN-C
Price: € 66.00/ £55.00

The Cecchini report, published in 1988, concluded that a substantial part (23%) of the benefits of completing the Single Market would derive from the effects of intensified competition. This new report examines those expectations to see if they have been realised by conducting an economic analysis of the evolution of competitive conditions in European markets, and how these have been affected by measures to complete the Single Market. The analysis includes an examination of aspects of firm behaviour which may be preventing the benefits of effective competition in the Single Market being fully realised, and leads to an assessment of the role of competition policy in achieving these aims.