Ad. Georgiadis for s / n for the competition: We expand the limits of independence of the Competition Commission

The draft law of the Ministry of Development on the “modernization of competition law in the digital age” was voted on in principle in the Production and Trade Committee of the Parliament. The bill amends Law 3959/2011 and incorporates Directive 2019/1 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 “on empowering the competition authorities of the Member States to enforce the rules more effectively and to ensure proper functioning of the internal market ”

ND was in favor of the bill, SYRIZA, KINAL and Elliniki Lysi reserved their positions, while the KKE and MERA 25 voted against it.

The Minister of Development and Investment, Adonis Georgiadis, during the completion of the article-by-article discussion of the draft law in the committee, stressed that the ND government is in favor of the capitalist market, which is why it pays special attention to the Competition Commission. for such an economy to function properly, there needs to be competition. She assured that, not only has she never intervened as a minister in the affairs of the committee, but she was and will always be by her side, so that she can do her job properly.

He stressed that what the bill actually does is “expand the limits of the independence of the Competition Commission”, as a continuation of the previous draft laws that have been passed and have largely assimilated part of the relevant Directive. Therefore, he added, “the incorporation of the Directive is an obvious obligation of our country”.

Mr. Georgiadis sent the message to the companies, that “we will not allow, especially in such a difficult period when there is an international inflation wave and accuracy is plaguing our fellow citizens, to anyone to use this crisis to make a profit”, emphasizing that “we will be there, not strict, not ruthless but ruthless”. That is why a bill has been introduced in the bill that prohibits a company from proposing, forcing or providing incentives or incentives to another company or association, in harmonized pricing practices in a market.

The Minister of Development and Investment, commenting on the reports of the opposition MPs about the “failure of the government to control inflation”, said that according to Eurostat data for 2021, in the whole year, we are the third country with the lowest inflation in all the eurozone. Therefore, when Greece is in 24th place out of 27 in the EU in inflation, “one can not seriously claim that the government has failed”.

Regarding the increases in electricity prices, Mr. Georgiadis reiterated that “these are not due to the fact that we have done something wrong with PPC, but because energy prices are rising internationally, reaching the highest point we have ever seen in history. And “It is directly absurd to live on a planet where the price of energy is rising to the highest degree in human history and in Greece we want the prices of electricity to fall.”

Tomorrow morning, the second reading of the draft law will take place in the committee, in order to be introduced in the plenary session of the Parliament on Thursday, for discussion and voting.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ