The preparatory meeting, held in the premises of the Commission for Protection of Competition, marked the initiation of the two-year project entitled “Capacity Building for the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition”, supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The main objective of the project is to improve the operational capacity of the Commission, primarily focused on drafting guidelines, updating the competition glossary for standardization of competition law terminology, organizing training programs on issues relating to the interface of numerous sectoral regulations and competition policy framework, organizing study visits to other highly developed European competition authorities, and purchasing new econometrics software and providing associated training for the Commission’s economists.

Preparation of draft guidelines for self-assessment of restrictive agreements, as well as for assessment of horizontal concentrations will further enrich the competition policy framework by providing a clear guidance to undertakings about the CPC’s approach in these two key areas. One of the important project outputs will be the preparation of a glossary, which will contribute to the common understanding of specific technical competition terminology that is currently either not translated in Serbian or not used in a standardized way. Also, each training program delivered within the project will focus on the discussion of specific cases that deal with the interface of competition law and sector regulation. The cases discussed will be important cases from selected EU countries.

This meeting also served as a platform to arrange an indicative project schedule and related dynamics, as well as all aspects of project implementation.

On behalf of an international consortium managing the project, as a successful tenderer selected by EBRD, the meeting was attended by Professor Yannis Katsoulacos, project manager, and Professor Boris Begović, national project manager. The Commission was represented by all division heads, in addition to the CPC Administrative and Professional Service representatives who will be in charge of specific activities.

The consulting team selected by EBRD for the implementation of this project comprises of renowned national and foreign experts such as Professor Joseph Harrington – USA, Professor Christos Genakos, Assistant Professor Vasiliki Bageri – Greece, Professor Russell Pittman – USA, as well as Assistant Professor Bojan Ristić, Professor Radmila Dragutinović-Mitrović and Professor Dušan Popović – Serbia.