What changed

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

P10_TA(2026)0247

on competitionCompetition policy – annual report 2025

(2025/2134(INI))

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

PE779.796

European Parliament resolution of 7 July 2026 on competition policy – annual report 2025 (2025/2134(INI))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in particular to Articles 101 to 109 thereof,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act)1,Act),

– having regard to the Commission report of 28 April 2026 on the review of Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act), in accordance with Article 53 thereof (COM(2026)0178),

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act)2,Act),

– having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (the EC Merger Regulation)3,Regulation),

– having regard to the guidelines on the assessment of horizontal mergers under the Council Regulation on the control of concentrations between undertakings4,undertakings,

– having regard to the guidelines on the assessment of non-horizontal mergers under the Council Regulation on the control of concentrations between undertakings5,undertakings,

– having regard to the report of 9 September 2024 by Mario Draghi entitled ‘The future of European competitiveness’ (Draghi report),

– having regard to its resolution of 10 September 2025 on facilitating the financing of investments and reforms to boost European competitiveness and creating a Capital Markets Union (Draghi Report)6,Report),

– having regard to the report of 17 April 2024 by Enrico Letta entitled ‘Much more than a market – Speed, security, solidarity: Empowering the single market to deliver a sustainable future and prosperity for all EU citizens’ (Letta report),

– having regard to the Commission staff working document of 13 October 2025 entitled ‘Executive summary of the evaluation of the Commission Notice on the application of Articles 87 and 88 of the EC Treaty to State aid in the form of guarantees (SWD(2025)0331),

– having regard to the Commission study entitled ‘Ex post evaluation of the implementation and effectiveness of EU antitrust remedies’7,remedies’,

– having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market8market (Foreign Subsidies Regulation),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 9 January 2026 entitled ‘Guidelines on the application of certain provisions of Regulation (EU) 2022/2560 of the European Parliament and of the Council on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market’9,market’,

– having regard to the Commission communication of 26 February 2025 entitled ‘The Clean Industrial Deal: A joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation’ (COM(2025)0085),

– having regard to the Commission communication of 4 July 2025 entitled ‘Framework for State Aid measures to support the Clean Industrial Deal (Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework)’10,Framework)’,

– having regard to the Commission staff working document of 4 November 2025 accompanying the Commission communication on a Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (SWD(2025)0850),

– having regard to Commission Decision (EU) 2025/2630 of 16 December 2025 on the application of Article 106(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to State aid in the form of public service compensation granted to certain undertakings entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest and repealing Decision 2012/21/EU112012/21/EU (SGEI Decision), and the annex thereto,

– having regard to the Commission report of 5 May 2026 entitled ‘Report on Competition Policy 2025’ (COM(2026)0180),

5. Reiterates the fundamental role of SMEs in strengthening European competitiveness, promoting innovation and creating jobs; calls on the Commission to ensure that the enforcement of competition rules and digital policies takes into account their impact on SMEs;

6. Underlines the importance of reducing energy costs to safeguard EU competitiveness, promoting net-zero energy sources in line with the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act12Act and the Taxonomy Complementary Climate Delegated Act13,Act, while ensuring that an open, competitive and sustainable single market is balanced with supply security and increased EU energy autonomy; stresses that fair, well-functioning, competitive, integrated and interconnected electricity markets are essential for strengthening the EU’s industrial competitiveness and supporting more stable and affordable energy prices; underlines the importance of the effective enforcement of competition rules in energy infrastructure and network access in order to safeguard the proper functioning of the single market and to ensure fair pricing and better protect consumers;

7. Notes the strategic role of critical raw materials for the energy transition and the objectives of the Critical Raw Materials Act14Act in reducing geopolitical dependencies and strengthening supply chain resilience, and calls for competition policy to support competitive markets across the value chain and pan-European investments;

8. Emphasises the key role competition plays in creating digital market alternatives and reducing dependence on and dominance of non-EU providers; encourages key infrastructure to be built to boost Europe’s autonomy and innovation, including cloud services, AI infrastructure (data centres and connectivity), financial market infrastructure and resilient, interoperable and competitive European payment systems, in order to ensure open and contestable markets and reduce strategic dependencies; observes evolving business practices and market structures, and potential new forms of harmful conduct like tacit collusion and algorithmic collusion on prices, and emphasises the need to align enforcement priorities with this evolving landscape, supported by data-driven analysis and evidence;

14. Underlines that strict and consistent competition policy enforcement contributes to strengthening economic, social and territorial cohesion across the EU and its outermost regions; notes that there are persistent economic and infrastructural gaps between internal, rural, peripheral, outermost and island regions, and calls on the Commission to take into account the territorial impact of competition decisions, in order to promote appropriate cohesion policies accompanying the development of the single market, while ensuring the uniform application of competition rules;

15. Welcomes the signing of the EU-UK Competition Cooperation Agreement15,Agreement, a key step in strengthening coordination between the respective competition authorities;

More independent and more effective EU competition enforcement

22. Calls for the process of the DMA review, which is expected to take place every three years, to be transparent, evidence-based, proportionate, targeted and ambitious, while ensuring regulatory stability and avoiding unnecessary expansion of obligations for market participants; insists that the periodic review of the DMA, every three years, should assess systematically the effectiveness and practical impact of existing obligations, legal certainty for market participants, the DMA’s interaction with sector-specific regulation, and the need for any adjustments to gatekeeper designation thresholds in the light of market developments; calls on the Commission to systematically include SMEs in the DMA review consultations;

23. Stresses that increasing concentration in cloud services may undermine competition, innovation and the EU’s strategic autonomy; highlights that practices such as bundling, cloud marketplaces and contractual mechanisms, including credits and spend commitments, can reinforce vendor lock-in and limit switching or multi-cloud strategies; stresses that cloud obligations must be updated; notes that, in its firstfollowing reviewthe ofmarket theinvestigations DMA,into thecloud Commissioncomputing reportsservices that itwere opened threein marketNovember investigations2025, intothe cloudCommission computingpublished servicesits inpreliminary Novemberposition 2025,on two25 toJune assess2026, whetherstating that Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services should be designated as gatekeepers for cloud computing services, and awhile thirdits toinvestigation assessinto whether the DMA can effectively address practices that may limit competitiveness and fairness in cloud computing services16;services remains ongoing; calls on the Commission to use the cloud services market investigation to adjust DMA obligations and ensure that they effectively address the barriers that prevent users from switching providers;

24. Recalls that enforcement of the DMA is still suboptimal; supports stronger enforcement of the DMA in relation to all market participants falling under the scope of its regulation regardless of nationality and encourages the Commission to conclude open investigations within the time frames provided for under the DMA; notes that effective DMA enforcement requires adequate and sustainable resources; calls on the Commission and the budgetary authorities to ensure that adequate and stable resources are allocated to DMA enforcement through the EU budget; calls therefore for sustainable finance solutions to be explored, while respecting institutional balance, notably for introduction of a ‘DMA fee’, similar to the fee under the DSA, to be explored;

29. Stresses that DMA enforcement applies to all designated gatekeepers regardless of nationality or origin, and calls on the Commission to apply DMA obligations consistently; welcomes the coordination between the Commission and NCAs on DMA-related conduct; urges the Commission to take decisive action accordingly;

30. Calls on the Commission to examine, in the context of the implementation of the Digital Single Market Directive17,Directive, potential abuses by gatekeepers under the DMA in their negotiations with press publishers, and in particular to examine whether such negotiations comply with the FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) obligations, ensuring equitable remuneration, transparent terms and non-discriminatory access to online audiences;

31. Calls on the Commission to make full use of Article 13 DMA to address any circumvention by gatekeepers of their obligations under Articles 5 and 6 DMA;

Antitrust

32. Urges the Commission to make appropriate use of interim measures to stop any practices that harm competition, especially in fast-evolving digital markets; calls on the Commission to modernise Regulation (EC) 1/2003181/2003 and Commission Regulation (EC) 773/200419773/2004 to improve the efficiency, legal certainty and proportionality of EU antitrust enforcement; supports a clarified framework for interim measures in cases of serious and irreparable harm to competition, with appropriate due process safeguards;

33. Calls on the Commission to address excessively long antitrust investigations; calls for binding procedural time limits on antitrust investigations to prevent undue delays that harm legal certainty and the rights of defence;

34. Urges the Commission to conduct a comprehensive study on the deterrent effect of its fines; insists that sanctions must be sufficiently high to surpass the illicit economic benefit derived from the infringement;

35. Stresses the importance of effective actions for damages as a complement to public antitrust enforcement, ensuring that victims of infringements of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU can obtain full compensation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the effective implementation of the Antitrust Damages Directive20Directive and to remove remaining barriers to private enforcement;

36. Reaffirms the need for strong and effective cooperation between the Commission and NCAs within the ECN as well as with relevant private and public stakeholders and consumer organisations; underlines that NCAs must remain politically independent and adequately resourced, and that the ECN+ Directive21Directive should be fully and consistently transposed and implemented across all Member States; calls for enhanced convergence of enforcement standards, timely information-sharing, and clear allocation of competences to avoid duplicated proceedings; stresses that the ECN needs to move towards a fully integrated form of cooperation, with a view to enhancing cost efficiency and improving the handling of cross-border aspects, including by enabling joint investigations and joint decision-making; calls for the ECN to further guide companies, especially SMEs, in applying the competition rulebook;

37. Calls on the Commission and NCAs to establish easily accessible and SME-friendly complaint mechanisms for anti-competitive practices, ensuring the swift and effective handling of cases;

38. Notes current investigations of non-EU companies, including the Commission’s preliminary investigation into Visa and Mastercard fees; calls on the Commission to ensure that the payments market remains competitive, transparent and accessible for consumers and businesses; emphasises the need to review the Interchange Fee Regulation22Regulation to assess its effectiveness in addressing rising fees; calls on the Commission to conclude ongoing investigations in the payments sector without undue delay; emphasises that the digital euro is a crucial opportunity to reduce the over-reliance on non-EU card schemes, and to strengthen competition and the EU’s strategic autonomy in the payments sector, including by helping to ensure more competitive pricing conditions for businesses, in particular SMEs;

39. Underlines the importance of competition in the banking sector and completion of the banking union; calls on the Commission to use all available instruments to ensure fair competition and monitor trends in the banking sector during high inflation periods; stresses the importance and urgency of the Commission’s upcoming report on the competitiveness of the EU banking sector and expects the Commission to adopt the report by July 2026; welcomes, furthermore, the upcoming assessment of the functioning of Directive 2002/87/EC232002/87/EC and the Solvency II Directive24Directive on aspects relating to the level playing field among insurance and banking market participants;

40. Notes the existence of oligopolies in the provision of certain services that are critical for EU financial market participants, such as market aggregators and connectivity providers that are characterised by limited numbers of providers, significant difficulty switching from one provider to another, or asymmetrical pricing power to the benefit of the provider, which ultimately inflates costs for investors; further notes that the three largest credit rating agencies and the four biggest companies in the audit market still hold market shares of over 90 %; urges the Commission to investigate existing oligopolies and take the appropriate measures to the benefit of EU competition;

54. Highlights the role of State aid as a tool to reduce economic disparities between the most developed EU regions and islands, inland areas, outermost regions, economically disadvantaged zones, and all parts of the EU affected by natural constraints; calls for greater flexibility and fewer restrictions on State aid for the EU’s islands and more vulnerable regions;

55. Expects the review of the General Block Exemption Regulation25Regulation to solve the current issues regarding the definition of ‘undertaking in difficulty’ and to modernise and simplify State aid rules in order to reduce red tape and boost the EU’s competitiveness; welcomes the opening of the public consultation to collect input on the scope and content of the review;

56. Welcomes the adoption of the revised SGEI Decision, to enable Member States to support the provision of decent, sustainable, energy-efficient, socially inclusive and affordable housing projects, also for middle-income households; calls on the Commission to monitor the implementation of the revised SGEI Decision and to assess whether the thresholds and conditions are sufficiently flexible to meet Member States’ needs; calls for simplified notification procedures for SGEI-related State aid measures that do not present significant competition risks;

57. Invites the Commission to assess the impact of market concentrations in the real-estate sector and related markets, such as construction and property management, to ensure that effective competition helps contain prices and improve access to housing;

58. Notes the distortionary effects of aggressive tax planning and of tax systems, including preferential tax agreements, on fair competition, as they may stifle innovation and jeopardise the contestability of markets, especially for SMEs; welcomes the Commission recommendation of 14 July 2020262020 to not grant financial support to companies with links to tax havens, while protecting honest taxpayers; calls for companies established in countries listed on the EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, as adopted by the Council, to be excluded from receiving State aid and invites the Commission to assess whether the current framework contributes to broader efforts to combat aggressive tax planning and tax haven practices;

Parliamentary involvement

63. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

In an increasingly fragmented global economy marked by geopolitical pressure and growing market concentration, EU competition policy must not only ensure effective competition in the Single Market but also defend Europe’s strategic autonomy and regulatory sovereignty. Our rules must be applied without compromise, ensuring that economic success is driven by innovation, efficiency, and consumer choice rather than by the abuse of dominance. Competition policy must evolve and become forward-looking, supporting European innovation while firmly resisting external political influence. Europe will not outsource its sovereignty: our competition rules are non-negotiable and they are enforceable on all market actors.

Against this backdrop, our competition rulebook is a central pillar of Europe’s strategic autonomy. The EU competition acquis has long supported broader Union objectives by enabling firms to grow and innovate under fair conditions. Building on the recommendations of the Draghi and Letta reports, competition policy must be adapted to new market realities while emphasising that consumer interests should remain central, while taking into account the need for competition policy to contribute to key objectives, such as competitiveness, resilience, security, strategic autonomy and sustainability. This includes actively promoting technology-friendly market conditions, based on open standards and interoperable infrastructures as well as the introduction of a New Competition Tool at EU level to address structural market failures that cannot be effectively tackled under the current competition framework. As digital markets continue to evolve rapidly, the Commission should assess whether the current list of core platform services adequately reflects market realities, including in areas such as artificial intelligence and cloud services. Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) must be delivered faster, through simplified or fast-track notification procedures, particularly for SMEs. At the same time, the enforcement of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) is an important and necessary tool to address competition distortions caused by foreign state-backed investments. Europe must defend its markets and technological edge.

To deliver on this objectives, effective enforcement is essential to the credibility of the EU competition rulebook. Competition enforcement must remain politically independent and be protected from undue external influence. At the same time, the Commission must urgently ensure that DG Competition is equipped with sufficient staffing, technical expertise and financial resources to effectively enforce antitrust rules, merger control and the Digital Markets Act. Looking ahead the Union should, explore, through an impact assessment, the merits of establishing a strong and independent European Competition Authority under democratic oversight by the European Parliament. Such an assessment should examine ways to shield competition enforcement from political interference. This needs to be looked at in relation to the European Competition Network (ECN) which plays a central role in the effective enforcement European competition rules. This would ensure consistent, impartial, and credible enforcement of EU competition.

Europe should also strengthen its international cooperation. European and global partners should make full use of international fora, such as the International Competition Network (ICN) and the OECD Competition Committee, to promote cooperation and convergence in competition enforcement.

When it comes to the DMA, enforcement must be strict, independent, and non-negotiable. The DMA is indispensable to restoring competition in digital markets. It must apply equally to all designated gatekeepers and safeguard Europe’s regulatory autonomy from external political influence. The robustness of the EU competition rulebook depends on the DMA and abuse-of-dominance rules working together, combining ex-ante and ex-post enforcement. Nonetheless, recent investigations into major cloud service providers illustrate both the scale and the complexity of DMA enforcement. We observe that the DMA enforcement remains uneven and requires a transparent and thorough review, including of cloud services and AI interfaces with a view to designate them as core platform services. The effective enforcement of the Digital Markets Act requires adequate and stable resources. The Commission should explore sustainable financing solutions, including the possible introduction of a dedicated DMA fee.

In parallel, traditional antitrust enforcement remains the backbone of competition policy and must be modernised to address algorithmic, data-driven market power, and artificial intelligence. In that regard, full cooperation within the ECN, between the Commission and national competition authorities, as well as with relevant private and public stakeholders and consumer organisations, is more than necessary. When it comes to Commission enforcement, its use of interim measures remains insufficient and should be applied more systematically to stop anti-competitive practices in fast-changing markets, such as the digital market.

In addition, merger control must also evolve to remain effective in changing market conditions. Merger guidelines should be revised so they are better aligned with new market realities and the EU’s priorities in fostering a more resilient and competitive Europe, while safeguarding high consumer welfare and preventing killer acquisitions, notably in digital, AI, pharma and other strategic sectors. A forward-looking approach is particularly needed in telecoms, banking, payments, defence and energy markets. At the same time, Europe’s lack of scale in strategic sectors undermines its competitiveness and resilience and calls for a framework that assesses pan-European mergers in a forward looking manner and ensure that any consolidation creating ‘EU champions’ enhances consumer welfare, market contestability and long term resilience, particularly in key sectors such as telecoms, banking, payments, defence and energy State aid policy must also support the green and digital transitions without fragmenting the Single Market, through the Clean Industrial State Aid Framework, a simplified GBER, and effective IPCEIs.

Finally, competition policy must be subject to strong democratic oversight. The European Parliament must be involved in the review, implementation, and external dimension of competition policy, including all discussions with third countries that may affect DMA enforcement. This is why an interinstitutional agreement should be concluded to formalise the European Parliament's role in competition policy oversight. Transparency and accountability are essential to maintain legitimacy, trust, and public support for a strong and credible EU competition framework. Europe’s rules are our rules: external actors have no veto over how we enforce competition. Our regulatory autonomy is a cornerstone of the EU’s strategic sovereignty and has to be defended at all costs.

ANNEX: DECLARATION OF INPUT

Pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure, the rapporteur declares that she included in her report input on matters pertaining to the subject of the file that she received, in the preparation of the draft report, from the following interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register1, or from the following representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies:

1. Interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register

BEUC

OVH Cloud

The European Digital Payments Industry Alliance

Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO)

Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA)

Forward Global

Apple

Orange

European Magazine Media Association (EMMA) and European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA)

Société générale

Browser Choice Alliance (BCA)

Booking

France Télévisions

2. Representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies

The list above is drawn up under the exclusive responsibility of the rapporteur.

Where natural persons are identified in the list by their name, by their function or by both, the rapporteur declares that she has submitted to the natural persons concerned the European Parliament’s Data Protection Notice No 484 (https://www.europarl.europa.eu/data-protect/index.do), which sets out the conditions applicable to the processing of their personal data and the rights linked to that processing.

INFORMATION ON ADOPTION IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Date adopted

3.6.2026

Result of final vote

+ : 41

- : 2

0 : 12

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL BY THE COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

41

+

ECR

Giovanni Crosetto, Denis Nesci, Ruggero Razza, Mariateresa Vivaldini

PPE

Georgios Aftias, Isabel Benjumea Benjumea, Stefan Berger, Gheorghe Falca, Marco Falcone, Markus Ferber, Dirk Gotink, Michalis Hadjipantela, Monika Hohlmeier, Kinga Kollár, Fernando Navarrete Rojas, Ludek Niedermayer, Giusi Princi, Paulius Saudargas, Andreas Schwab, Flavio Tosi

Renew

Engin Eroglu, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, Billy Kelleher, Ludovít Ódor, Anouk Van Brug, Stéphanie Yon-Courtin

S&D

Matthias Ecke, Jonás Fernández, Eero Heinäluoma, Marina Kaljurand, Aurore Lalucq, César Luena, Ana Catarina Mendes, Nikos Papandreou, Evelyn Regner, Irene Tinagli

The Left

Gaetano Pedulla', Jussi Saramo

Verts/ALE

Damian Boeselager, Vladimir Prebilic, Marie Toussaint

2

-

ESN

Siegbert Frank Droese, Volker Schnurrbusch

12

0

ECR

Stephen Nikola Bartulica, Guillaume Peltier, Bogdan Rzonca

NI

Fabio De Masi, Katerina Konecná

PfE

Paolo Borchia, Mireia Borrás Pabón, Jaroslav Knot, Tomás Kubín, Jaroslava Pokorná Jermanová, Antonín Stanek, Annamária Vicsek

Key:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstentions