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REPORT (2024/2079(INI))

On competition policy – annual report 2024

A-10-2025-0071

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: Lara Wolters

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Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text. The paragraph links open the paragraph a statement rests on — check the text itself before relying on it.

This resolution on the 2024 annual competition policy report sets out Parliament's views on EU competition policy, covering general principles, industrial policy, enforcement, mergers, and sectoral issues. It calls for competition policy to support EU objectives like sustainability and digitalisation, warns against market fragmentation from State aid, and urges better use of structural remedies and interim measures. It demands action on digital markets, including AI, cloud services, and interoperability, and on sectoral concerns like food supply chains, financial services, and payments. It also calls for greater parliamentary involvement in competition policy and for an interinstitutional agreement.

Committee position. The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs proposes a resolution setting out Parliament's position on the 2024 competition policy report, calling for specific actions from the Commission and Member States.

Key points

  1. Reaffirms competition policy's role in protecting consumers and markets, and calls for it to contribute to EU policies on sustainability, energy, defence, and digitalisation.
  2. Calls for coordinated industrial policy, warns against market dominance and price distortion, and stresses the need for effective merger control.
  3. Calls for State aid to be consistent with EU objectives, for companies in non-EU tax havens to be barred from receiving aid, and for stricter monitoring and transparency.
  4. Notes that only two Member States accounted for 77% of State aid notified, and calls for a common financing instrument like a European Competitiveness Fund.
  5. Calls for IPCEIs to have genuine EU added value and for State aid notifications to be completed within six months.
  6. Takes note of the Draghi report's estimate of EUR 800 billion per year needed for competitiveness and stresses the need for public and private investment.
  7. Calls for enforcement to address new forms of harmful conduct like tacit and algorithmic collusion, and for analysis of a 'new competition tool'.
  8. Calls for better use of structural remedies and interim measures, and for the Commission to address excessively long antitrust investigations.
  9. Calls for assessment of how competition principles affect services of general economic interest, including an SGEI exemption for affordable housing.
  10. Calls for review of the EC Merger Regulation to address killer acquisitions and below-threshold mergers, and for an 'innovation defence'.
  11. Urges action on digital markets, including interoperability obligations, new investigations into cloud services, and scrutiny of AI market concentration.
  12. Calls for investigations into abuses in overseas territories, food supply chains, and payments, and for review of the Interchange Fee Regulation.

Who is affected

  • The European Commission, which is called on to enforce competition rules, review regulations, and engage with Parliament.
  • Member States, which are urged to implement the ECN+ Directive and avoid subsidy competition.
  • Companies in digital, financial, agricultural, and other sectors, which may face new investigations or regulatory changes.
  • Consumers, who are expected to benefit from fairer competition and lower prices.

Figures and deadlines

  • 77 % of State aid notified was accounted for by only two Member States.
  • EUR 800 billion per year is estimated as needed to protect EU competitiveness.
  • 0.7 % of notified mergers have been blocked or withdrawn since 2004.
  • The three largest credit rating agencies hold a market share of over 90 %.

Legal basis: Articles 101 to 109 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union