Chillin'Competition

European Competition Policy and the Lisbon Treaty: Dawn of a new era or business as usual?– Patrick Vincent (P.Vincent@student.ulg.ac.be)

In the post-Lisbon Treaty era, the reference to “free and undistorted competition” previously enshrined in Article 3(g) EC has disappeared from the forefront of the EU treaties. The present dissertation seeks to assess whether the elimination of this provision – and its replacement by a Protocol appended to the Treaty – is likely to affect the effectiveness of European competition policy. Whilst scholars are divided on this issue, there nonetheless seems to be a growing concern that European competition policy might as a result be increasingly influenced by external, public-policy, considerations, which to date have played a marginal role in the Commission’s orthodox enforcement policy. To test the veracity of this proposition, the present dissertation will review a number of concrete practical issues (environmental agreements, etc.), where considerations alien to core competition concerns might be invoked by stakeholders.