The European Commission (EC) and the United Kingdom concluded technical negotiations on a future agreement to cooperate in the area of competition on Tuesday, October 29.
According to the community Executive, the competition pact between the European Union and the United Kingdom will be a complementary document to the trade and cooperation agreement that establishes the relationship between the two parties after Brexit.
The Commission also recalled that the trade pact provides for the possibility of concluding a separate agreement on cooperation on competition.
The trade pact provides for the possibility of closing a separate agreement on cooperation in competition matters
The future competition agreement will allow the Commission, the national competition authorities of the EU Member States and the UK Competition and Markets Authority to “cooperate directly on competition investigations”, according to Brussels.
“It is the first EU agreement on competition cooperation that also allows national competition authorities to cooperate directly with the competition authority of a third country, as provided for in the trade and cooperation agreement for the Kingdom United”, explained the European Commission.
Furthermore, he added that The cooperation pact will establish that “important” antitrust and merger investigations are brought to the attention of the other party..
“It will also allow the coordination of investigations between the jurisdictions involved when necessary and will establish clear principles of cooperation aimed at avoiding any conflict between jurisdictions,” said Brussels.
The agreement will come into force after the European Union and the United Kingdom have completed their ratification procedures. As a next step, The European Commission will prepare proposals for the EU Council (Member States) to sign and conclude the agreement. The consent of the European Parliament will also be necessary.
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