Staff of the Competition Council participated in a training session on merger assessment organised within the framework of the Twinning Project. The session was delivered by experts Mihai Bușu and Julius Bučys from the competition authorities of Romania and Lithuania.

The main objective of the training was to strengthen the capacity of the Competition Council’s experts in the assessment of mergers, in line with the best practices and methodologies applied in the Member States of the European Union and by the European Commission.

The session agenda included presentations on the main economic methods used in the ex ante assessment of mergers, including the SSNIP test (Small but Significant and Non-transitory Increase in Price) for defining the relevant market, bidding analysis, and the UPP (Upward Pricing Pressure) and GUPPI (Gross Upward Pricing Pressure Index) indicators.

Approaches used in the ex post evaluation of mergers were also presented, including the econometric “difference-in-differences” (DiD) method.

The session was marked by a high level of interaction, with staff of the Competition Council actively engaging in discussions and raising questions related to practical aspects encountered in their day-to-day work.

The final part of the training focused on case studies, where participants examined specific scenarios and applied in practice the economic tools and analytical methods presented during the session.

The Twinning Project ‘Strengthening the institutional capacity of the Competition Council to enforce competition and State aid policies in line with the best practices of the European Union’ is funded by the European Union and implemented by Romania, Lithuania and Poland over a period of 27 months.