Europeanization unleashed and rebounding: assessing the modernization of EU cartel policy

Abstract:

1 May 2004 marks a truly historic date in the evolving history of the European Union (EU). Alongside the much publicized EU enlargement to twenty-five members this date also initiated what amounts to nothing less than a revolution in the way that competition policy in the EU is both administered and made. The new changes affect the handling of both anti-trust and mergers cases and aim to both modernize and decentralize decision-making. Cartelbusting, the focus of this paper, remains the major aspect of the European Commission's activities in the area of competition policy and it has long served as the primary example of supranational regulation. This article assesses the significance of this first major overhaul of the regime since its inception in 1962 and considers how far these radical changes enhance the federal characteristics of competition governance. It also aims to illustrate how the competition policy has been effectively Europeanized. The article is divided into two main parts: in the first the author provides a discussion of the changing and puissant EU competition regime and, in the second, assesses the impact of this new regime and especially the new involvement of the member states within the rubric of the Europeanization literature.