The Commission for Protection of Competition and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Belgrade signed the Grant Agreement funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the implementation of project “Increasing economic growth through support to promotion of competition policy”.

The Grant will be utilized for strengthening capacities of the Commission in implementing competition policy, while the planned effect is the advancement of its operating capacities and raising the level of awareness on the competition policy in Serbia.

The Project comprises of three segments which will be implemented through organizing promotions of solutions from the Draft Law on Protection of Competition with the objective of preparing a legislative proposal in as qualitative manner as possible, via increasing detection rate of competition infringements, as well as by raising the level of competition culture and awareness among key stakeholders in Serbia. The Agreement stipulates the project implementation period of 24 months, executed during 2018 and 2019.

In May 2017, the Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade published a call for submitting proposals for project “Strengthening EU integration in Serbia and Montenegro”. The overall goal of Norway’s assistance to the Western Balkans is to contribute to development of rule of law and stability through initiatives that promote stability, that is to say closer regional cooperation and implementation of transitional justice in the region, socio-economic development achieved through the increased economic growth and competitiveness, increased capacity in the field of environment, climate and energy, in addition to the increased social and economic inclusion of marginalized groups. The objectives of Norwegian assistance to the Western Balkans are also strengthening of the rule of law through capacity-building of courts, prosecuting authorities, independent control bodies and the police, a more democratic and effective defense sector, and also the fight against organized crime and corruption established as a top priority for the authorities.

This call of the Norwegian Embassy also aims to provide project-based support within the three priority areas of Norwegian development assistance to Ministries, local governments and public institutions participating in promoting and enhancing EU integration of Serbia and Montenegro. The proposed action must contribute to Serbian and Montenegrin EU integration process in one or more of the following chapters: Chapter 5: Public procurement; Chapter 8: Competition policy; Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights; Chapter 24: Justice, freedom and security; Chapter 27: Environment (for Montenegro only); Chapter 32: Financial control; and, Chapter 35: Other issues – Normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo (for Serbia only). The proposed activities must take place in Serbia and/or Montenegro.

Delegation of the Commission for Protection of Competition headed by President Dr. Miloje Obradović participated at the International Conference on “13 years’ competition policy working experience in Albania, legal aspects with regard to the economy and business operations; learning through work and international cooperation”, held in Tirana.
President Obradović also participated as a panelist of one conference session, together with competition authority representatives of Austria, Romania and Albania, discussing on the modalities of prospective cooperation in competition policy.

On the occasion, Dr. Obradović pointed that when considering modalities of cooperation in the implementation of competition policy, one must be aware that the said is defined by increasingly more intensified changes occurring in the economy. Towards advancing, foremost regional cooperation, the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia instigated an initiative for establishing the regional Western Balkans Competition Forum headquartered in Belgrade, to be sponsored by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

“Regional cooperation achieved through the Forum would additionally increase capacities and impact the coordination of practices between regional competition authorities, and also expand possibilities for public advocacy activities relating to the competition policy of all regional competition authorities” – said President Obradović during the discussion with colleagues from other competition authorities.

The Conference was attended by the Republic of Albania Government members and Parliament MPs, in addition to the US Justice Department, OECD, UNCTAD and other representatives of international organizations and expert public.

The Commission delegation also comprised of Council member Marko Obradović, and Senior Advisor in the International Cooperation Division Nina Vasić, LL.M. who also partook in the panel on “Legal aspects of competition law and future challenges in the EU integration process”.

On November 17, 2017, the Commission for Protection of Competition instituted proceeding for investigation of competition infringement ex officio against A.D. Niš – ekspres from Niš.

During the proceeding, the Commission will investigate whether the said company, as a sole managing party of a bus station in Niš, has abused its dominant position by charging various prices for passenger bus station services.

All persons in possession of data, documents or other relevant information that could contribute to the fact-finding in this proceeding are called upon to submit the said to the address: Commission for Protection of Competition, 25/IV Savska St., Belgrade.

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.

The Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia was given a special honor this year of being the “Guest Host” at the Annual Conference “Competition 2.0” of the Romanian Competition Council, held in Bucharest. The main topics of the Conference related to the competition issues in telecommunications, media, online trade and other markets within the “New Economy”.

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr. Miloje Obradović, heading the Serbian delegation, in his keynote paper adverted attention to the need of competition authorities to perceive challenges in implementing competition policies due to the rapidly changing business surroundings where all competition authorities operate. During the closing session of the Conference Dr. Obradović summarized conclusions of two, exceptionally successful panel discussions.

In addition to the Commission President, member of the Commission’s Council Dr. Veljko Milutinović accomplished a notable participation at the Conference, with an active role in the Conference panel discussion dedicated to the new tendencies in telecom markets and their impact on competition. The CPC delegation also comprised of Nina Vasić, Senior Advisor in the International Cooperation Division.

The Conference was attended by numerous representatives of the Government of Romania, National Assembly of Romania, European Commission, OECD, Romanian regulatory authorities, academic community, international organizations and associations of undertakings.

Delegation of the Commission for Protection of Competition headed by President of the Commission Dr. Miloje Obradović participated at the International Conference on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Croatian Competition Agency organized in Zagreb.

President Obradović also partook in a panel discussion dedicated to judicial control in competition cases. On the occasion, Dr. Obradović pointed that judicial control of competition authority’s decisions is a guarantee of legal certainty for both undertakings and the Commission. For precisely that reason, Dr. Obradović underlined the necessity for specialization of judges on antitrust law and policy subject-matter, since otherwise, in his view, it cannot be expected that the courts will rule in antitrust procedures with full subject-matter jurisdiction, or respectively it can be expected that they will be retained at the level of investigation and assessment of potential infringements of the rules of procedure.

“The problem is, and we have to underline it, that antitrust law and policy subject-matter nonetheless, figuratively speaking, speaks in its own language and cannot be strictly translated into the administrative procedure language, thus we have proposed as a favorable solution to strengthen the education of judges toward advancing judicial capacities in regard to decision-making in this area.” – President Obradović emphasized during the panel discussion.

The Croatian Competition Agency’s Conference was attended by more than one hundred experts – judges, professors, attorneys-at-law and undertakings.

The Commission’s delegation also comprised of Member of the Council Marko Obradović and Senior Advisor in the Competition Infringement Division Marija Kovačević.

This event also served as an opportunity for broadening of already good cooperation established between the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia and the Croatian Competition Agency, inter alia, marked with the signing of the Memorandum on Cooperation in 2013, followed by a series of joint activities affecting the operative advancement of the Commission and the Agency.

The Commission for Protection of Competition hosted the European Commission Expert mission visiting institutions of the Republic of Serbia from November 13, 2017 with the goal of providing consultancy in relation to the fulfillment of transitional measures concerning the media. These discussions are conducted with the goal of achieving more qualitative negotiation talks on the Republic of Serbia accession to the European Union within the Chapter 23 (Judiciary and fundamental rights).

During the meeting, Commission’s representatives introduced the Expert mission members to the role and competences of the Commission for Protection of Competition in relation to the control of concentrations, media ownership, its role in drafting and preparing a media strategy, manner of functioning of key institutions and regulatory authorities with respect to the policy implementation in this area, as well as to other open issues.

Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that when conducting controls on mergers and acquisitions of ownership, i.e. management rights in the media, the Commission acts in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Protection of Competition, and that, in this respect, pluralism and diversity of media content is not a criterion determining the Commission when assessing the permissibility of concentration, since that issue is in the competence of other regulatory authorities and line ministry.

Delegations were headed by Member of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition Čedomir Radojčić, and Francesco Sciacchitano, Head of the EC Expert mission.

The Foreign Investors Council (FIC) in Serbia presented its traditional edition of the White Book 2017, an overview of the business environment in Serbia with concrete recommendations on how to improve it, as an additional contribution provided by foreign investors operating in Serbia.

This document establishes that this year as well, the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia achieved a significant progress in its operating activities, and welcomes the announcements of further advancements of legislative framework, which will enable more efficient implementation of the competition policy in Serbia.

In accordance with the assessment of the Foreign Investors Council: “The scope of the Commission’s activities in the various fields of its competences, as well as its readiness to use complex mechanisms provided for by the Law, constitute a significant progress when compared to the previous period. Also, the Commission began implementing economic analyses in the proceedings of examining infringements of competition and complex mergers in order to prove a violation. This indicates that some improvement was made in the quality of the decision-making process of the Commission in proving particularly complex violations”.

The investors’ recommendation is that the Commission should continue with the enactment of by-laws defining certain categories core to the anti-trust framework in more detail, as well as to prepare clear guidelines and instructions containing the manner of implementation of certain provisions of the Law.

“In addition, compared to the previous years, the Commission clearly made a significant effort in developing competition advocacy. Specifically, it is now publishing its opinions and decisions, issuing notifications on its activities on its official website and organizing promotional activities more frequently. This positive development is important as it contributes to the overall improvement of the current legal framework and to the general public’s and media’s better understanding of competition rules and activities and the importance of the Commission’s role, thus simultaneously raising awareness about the need for and importance of competition rules in general” – the “White Book” specifies.

Representatives of the Commission for Protection of Competition attended the two-day workshop “Public procurements in the light of protecting competition and preventing corruption”, organized in Vrdnik from 6-7 November 2017 by the OSCE Mission to Serbia.

In addition to the Commission for Protection of Competition, the workshop was also attended by representatives of the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Republic Commission for Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures.
The workshop topics for the first day covered the issues of related persons and data protection, conflict of interest, as well as legal protection. The Commission for Protection of Competition presented its role in the prevention of competition infringements in public procurements. During the second day, participants paid particular attention to the modalities for strengthening cooperation between institutions.

Pursuant to the Agreement on co-operation from November last year, signed by the Commission for Protection of Competition with the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Republic Commission for Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, and toward a new Law on Protection of Competition, participants identified the need for improvement of functioning, convergence of positions per matters of mutual interest, as well as joint participation in activities which facilitate affirmation of policies implemented by these authorities.