The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) exchange views with Joaquín ALMUNIA, Commissioner for Competition on the legislative priorities in competition policy for 2011in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

exchange of views

Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

Competition (T2)

ALMUNIA, Joaquin (ES, EC)

Legislative priorities in competition policy for 2011: extracts from the exchange of views with Joaquín ALMUNIA, Commissioner for Competition

SOUNDBITE (English), Joaquin ALMUNIA, European Commissioner for Competition, Referring to the financial sector it's crucial that financial institutions and in particular banks do not remain dependent on state support for longer than necessary and that they finance themselves on the market.

SOUNDBITE (English), Joaquin ALMUNIA, European Commissioner for Competition, We will need to be very careful in facing out the exceptional crisis regime both for financial sector and the real economy. For me it's equally clear, our economies in Europe will not recover their competitive edge, their dynamism, if they rely on state support for too long. We will need to be extremely careful and to decide the speed of the exit and decide the right moment to accelerate this speed but, should be clear, exit is an obligation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Joaquin ALMUNIA, European Commissioner for Competition, The Commission will need to examine how to introduce a coherent framework for collective redress. Before taking any action we first must agree on common principles that can be applied in various areas. For that purpose we are planning to organise a public consultation during the autumn. Following this public consultation, which will form the basis for individual legislative proposals, such as the one I intend to present on anti trust damage actions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Joaquin ALMUNIA, European Commissioner for Competition, In the case of Ireland, at the end of September this year, the unlimited guarantee that was adopted when Banking system in Ireland was in deep crisis, will come to an end.

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (RE, NL), Rapporteur, What we need to know is the effectiveness and the possible distortive effect of the state-aid measures to the financial sector; also the temporary aid framework... You said that you are receiving the figures by the member states, but... are you really going to take the figures put forward by the member states?

SOUNDBITE (English), Joaquin ALMUNIA, European Commissioner for Competition, We are not yet out of the goods, we are in the mid of the use of these instruments that were exceptionally adopted at the beginning of the crisis. Unfortunately it is still too soon to produce an evaluation on how we have used these exceptional instruments.

SOUNDBITE (English), Joaquin ALMUNIA, European Commissioner for Competition, On the fact that the Commission has announced its intention to propose a European agency or European system for credit rating agencies , I think that's the way to go. I don't think that it's a competition problem; we've had a long history of mistakes, of poor practise in rating agencies ever since the crisis began... it's an incompetence problem rather than a competition one.