President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr. Miloje Obradović received a visit today from President of the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ivo Jerkić.

Topics of discussions related to the exchange of experiences from the area of regulatory framework and implementation of competition policy, in addition to the advancement of further cooperation between two institutions through the means of exchanges of experts, study visits, organization of joint seminars and workshops, as well as by drafting joint economic and legal analyses.

Also, the two parties discussed the initiative for establishing the Western Balkans Competition Forum and its importance for further advancement of regional cooperation between competition authorities. Collocutors agreed on the Forum’s advancement of cooperation between national authorities of the Western Balkan countries, which will considerably facilitate their future operations, convergence of practices and procedures, but also enable improvement of institutional and regulatory competition policy frameworks in the region.

The meeting was also attended by members of the BiH Competition Council – Arijana Regoda Dražić and Nebojša Popić, as well as members of the Commission’s Council – Mirjana Vukašinović, Čedomir Radojčić, Marko Obradović and Dr. Veljko Milutinović.

The Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia and the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina have signed the Memorandum of Mutual Understanding and Cooperation in the field of competition policy and law in 2009.

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr. Miloje Obradović held an introductory lecture at the Conference “Competition and Competitiveness”, traditionally organized by Karanović & Nikolić Law Firm and German foundation Friedrich Naumann.

This year’s conference focused on various experiences in the implementation of competition law and policy in the context of Serbia’s accession to the EU, state aid control, division of competences in various countries’ practices pertaining to the competition law and policy, such as Austria and BiH, as well as the competition law compliance policy of companies operating on the Serbian market.

On the occasion Dr. Obradović underlined, inter alia, that in the forthcoming period the Commission will be focused on even more intensified regional cooperation, and announced the possibility of establishing the Western Balkans Competition Forum, with headquarters in Belgrade. Also, advancements in the protection of rights of undertakings will remain to be the focus of activities, in addition to the advocacy and promotion of the competition policy notion, or respectively the excretion of influence on legislative and executive power and other various policy makers impacting the state of competition on the national market.

The President of the Commission for Protection of Competition underlined that in consideration of not yet finished transitional period, along with the still ongoing privatization process, it is necessary to continue with sector inquiries and market analysis in order to detect respective structures and interrelations.

“What do we expect in the future: tradition – to continue with our existing path, trust – to carry on building it through our work, transparency – via consistent implementation in proceedings, predictability for undertakings, and organic growth and strengthening of the institution”, said President Obradović in his address.

One of the Conference’s panelists was Dr. Veljko Milutinović, member of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia, addressing the attendees on the future of competition policy in Serbia in the light of drafting the new Law on Protection of Competition.

The Conference was attended by H.E. Axel Dittmann, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Serbia; Andrijana Đurčić, President of the Commission for State Aid Control, Radica Nusdorfer, Head of the Economic and European Integration Section at the EU Delegation to Serbia, and Ivo Jerkić, President of the Competition Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sonja Kovač, company lawyer at Heineken Serbia.