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DRAFT REPORT (2025/2134(INI))

On competition policy – annual report 2025

ECON-PR-779796

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs · Rapporteur: Stéphanie Yon-Courtin

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

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 draft report on the EU competition policy annual report 2025 calls for a forward-looking competition policy that supports EU strategic autonomy, innovation, and competitiveness while resisting external influence, particularly from the United States. It urges the creation of an independent European competition authority, full enforcement of the Digital Markets Act, modernised antitrust and merger rules, and simplified State aid procedures, with Parliament fully involved.

Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution calling for a more assertive and autonomous EU competition policy, including an independent authority, stronger DMA enforcement, and merger rules favouring EU champions.

Key points

  1. Calls for EU competition rules to support EU policies on industry, trade, consumers and financial services, and for the Draghi and Letta reports to be followed up.
  2. Encourages building key infrastructures like cloud, AI and financial market infrastructure to boost digital sovereignty, and calls for a European preference in strategic sectors.
  3. Calls on the Commission to shorten or fast-track IPCEI notifications, which are burdensome for SMEs, and welcomes enforcement of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.
  4. Calls for a real independent European competition authority under democratic oversight, separate from the executive, integrating antitrust, merger, State aid, consumer and digital enforcement.
  5. Urges full enforcement of EU competition rules against political pressure, and calls for DMA and Article 102 TFEU to work together, streamlining the rulebook.
  6. Supports DMA enforcement, welcomes market investigations into cloud providers and Google, and suggests stable funding via a 'DMA fee' similar to the DSA.
  7. Calls for a transparent, thorough and ambitious DMA review in May 2026, including considering AI and cloud as core platform services and consulting SMEs.
  8. Stresses DMA applies to all regardless of nationality, notes Booking's gatekeeper status and penalties by French and Spanish authorities, urging Commission action.
  9. Urges the Commission to use interim measures and modernise Regulation 1/2003 and Implementing Regulation 773/2004, and reaffirms cooperation within the European Competition Network.
  10. Calls for continued investigation into Visa and Mastercard fees and review of the Interchange Fee Regulation to address rising card scheme fees.
  11. Calls for ambitious revision of merger guidelines to align with industrial policy, not obstruct pan-European mergers creating 'EU champions', and to prevent 'killer acquisitions'.
  12. Welcomes the Clean Industrial State Aid Framework and revised SGEI Decision, expects GBER review to simplify rules, and demands full parliamentary involvement and transparency.

Who is affected

  • The European Commission: would enforce competition rules, review merger guidelines, and potentially establish an independent authority.
  • National competition authorities: would gain 'call in' powers to review mergers and acquisitions.
  • Small and medium-sized enterprises: would benefit from simplified IPCEI notifications and inclusion in DMA review consultations.
  • Large digital companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Booking, Visa, Mastercard: face continued enforcement and potential new obligations.

Figures and deadlines

  • May 2026: expected DMA review process.

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