During the period September 30 to October 3, 2014, in Chisinau, it has been launched a long term cooperation partnership between competition authorities of Moldova and Slovakia, through a project on experience exchange conducted with the support of the Embassy of Slovakia in Chisinau and financed from EU funds.

     In this context, the Competition Council of the Republic of Moldova hosted a group of experts of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic, who came in an official visit to share the experience of the Slovak authority on regulatory reforms and on adjusting the legal framework to EU standards.

     Under the project, new practices in addressing and evaluating mergers have been discussed, as well as the  imposition of the conditions and obligations under the merger, investigating cases of abuse of dominant position, organization and evaluation of market research through concrete examples.

     In this context, the experts from Slovakia, presented examples of sector inquiry for energy and rail freight sectors, competition restrictions that directly relate to a merger, capital reduction impact analysis of mergers, the procedure deadlines in assessing mergers, competences, technical and practical experience to obtain relevant evidence, etc.

     At their turn, the experts from the Competition Council of the Republic of Moldova, considered this project timely and welcome, given the rich experience of 20 years of the colleagues from Slovakia in the competition field, and in the European integration process. They appreciated the opportunity to work on certain areas and discuss issues arising during case investigations in different areas: mergers, abuse of dominance, anticartel, market studies. In particular, the interest of Moldovan experts was concentrated on early detection of cartels and bid rigging, given the experience of Slovak colleagues.

     Following discussions, the Slovak experts, shared their experience on competition advocacy to eliminate cartel, to promote merger notifications by businesses, and came up with suggestions on the subject of accepting commitments in the merger to be implemented in the Republic Moldova from January 1, 2015.

     Parties also expressed the willingness for a further cooperation in joint programs, working together in particular cases, organizing a visit to the Slovak competition authority by the representatives of Competition Council of the Republic of Moldova and subsequently signing a cooperation agreement between the institutions.

 

 

Competition Council

03.10.2014