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Sszszczak, Erika --- "Competition and the liberalised market" [2006] ELECD 411; in Shuibhne, Nic Niamh (ed), "Regulating the Internal Market" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Regulating the Internal Market

Editor(s): Shuibhne, Nic Niamh

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420338

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Competition and the liberalised market

Author(s): Sszszczak, Erika

Extract:

4. Competition and the liberalised market
Erika Szyszczak

INTRODUCTION
The growing maturity of the internal market programme, and the consequent
changes to market structures and trade patterns in Europe, have led to a new
dynamic in the relationship between competition policy and the free move-
ment provisions. The relationship between the two policies was once seen as
complementary; but the rapid movement towards competitive markets through
liberalisation and privatisation of state activity previously shielded from the
rules of competition has created a new relationship between the state, regula-
tion and the competitive market, shifting the focus of attention upon the inter-
connectedness of the two policies.1 The aim of this chapter is to explore some
of the features of this relationship under three broad themes: first, the use of
new forms of economic governance to regulate competition in liberalised
markets; secondly, the emergence of new economic actors; and thirdly and
finally, the position of the free movement and competition rules in the
economic constitution and their role in polity building.


NEW FORMS OF ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE
During the 1990s competition law underwent a subtle process of policy
change and enforcement leading to a full scale modernisation programme in
the new millennium. The constitutional legitimacy of the role of competition
law in the integration project is derived from its Treaty basis but, in fact, the
EC Treaty provides very few principles on how competition should materialise
in the internal market. The sweeping statements of Articles 2 and 3(1)g EC
...