Book Chapter

The origins of European competition regulation II

Wigger, Angela, Angela Wigger, Buch-Hansen, Hubert, Hubert Buch-Hansen

2011

Overview

This chapter exposes the political struggles that led to the establishment of a European level competition unit of regulation. It explains why competition rules were included in the 1951 Treaty of Paris, which established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which led to the European Economic Community (referred to as the EC in the remainder). The chapter argues that, similar to the developments at national level, the supranational competition units were given shape on the basis of two discourses of regulation, namely the neoliberal and national mercantilist discourses. Section one discusses the adoption of the Schuman Declaration that preceded the ECSC Treaty, while sections two and three analyse the political controversies in the run-up to the ECSC Treaty and the content, form and scope of the resulting competition unit of regulation. Section four examines the political disputes that led to the establishment of the EC competition unit, while section five focuses on the content, form and scope it was eventually given. In section six, the adoption of Regulation 17/62 which further fleshed out the statutory rules for the enforcement of the Treaty's competition rules receives special attention.

• Publisher: Routledge,Taylor & Francis Group
• Subject: Competition law / Antitrust law / Political economy / POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
• ISBN: 9780415605793, 1138811785, 9781138811782, 0415605792