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Why should National Competition Authorities be Independent and how should they be Accountable
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Mateus, Abel Moreira |
| Copyright Year | 2007 |
| Abstract | Should regulatory agencies be independent from the government? Or should they be a department of a given sector ministry? More broadly, should they be independent from the executive, legislative and judicial branches, or be part of one of these branches? These are important questions that come up not only when new Member States join the European Union, but also when major reforms are contemplated. We will state the reasons why national competition agencies (NCAs), the institutions in charge of enforcing competition rules in a given country, should have a substantial degree of independence. They should be entrusted with a clear mandate and their decisions should be guided solely by technical criteria expressed in their charter, free from political or interest group pressures. This institutional arrangement, based on a well-designed organisation, with talented personnel and with a competent board, guarantees the best contribution to enhanced consumer welfare and innovation. But independence in a democratic society means accountability. These are two sides of the same coin that should go hand-in-hand. To this extent, internal and external checks and balances need to be designed towards ensuring independence, while making the institution responsible for its actions and decisions. One major element of accountability is performance criteria. How is the board entrusted with a given mandate going to be assessed? Although a central point in running any organisation, this has seldom been the object of a contract between society (or the minister in charge) and the board steering the institution. Other important institutional aspects are the relationships between the agency and the government, parliament and other regulators. Since antitrust decisions are law enforcement, in some countries decisions are taken only by June 2007 European Competition Journal 17 |
| Starting Page | 17 |
| Ending Page | 30 |
| Page Count | 14 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1080/17441056.2007.11428448 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://docentes.fe.unl.pt/~amateus/publicacoes/ECJ3-Mateusrevised.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1080/17441056.2007.11428448 |
| Volume Number | 3 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
