The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) in Serbia has presented its traditionally published edition, the White Book 2018, an overview of the business climate in Serbia containing recommendations aimed at supporting economic growth and business climate improvements from the investors’ point of view.

The document notes significant progress achieved this year also by the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia in its work and welcomes the efforts to enhance the legal framework aimed to further improve the efficiency of competition policy enforcement in Serbia.

According to the Foreign Investors Council’s assessment: “The Commission continued making progress in competition advocacy and public relations. The Commission regularly informs the public on its activities and publishes a great majority of its decisions on its official website. The Commission has published on its website the Guidelines on Rights and Obligations of the Parties during Dawn Raids, as well as the Leniency Policy Leaflet. This positive development concerning competition advocacy is important as it contributes to the overall improvement of the current legal framework and to better understanding on the part of the general public and the media of competition policy rules and activities and the importance of the Commission’s role. Finally, it is commendable that the Commission increasingly implements economic analyses in inquiries into competition infringements and complex mergers.”

The investors’ recommendations for the Commission is to continue to adopt bylaws defining certain core categories of the antitrust framework, as well as to issue clear guidelines and instructions containing the manner of application of certain provisions of the Law, in addition to publications of the relevant definitions of product markets.