JAKARTA, 23 July 2018 - Fourteen competition officials from a number of ASEAN Member States and the ASEAN Secretariat took part in an intensive training course on the competition law and enforcement practices of the European Union (EU) from 9-20 July 2018 at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

In his remarks, Johannes Laitenberger, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition (DG Competition) of the European Commission, shared his hope that the participants would find the exchanges useful, fruitful and stimulating to gather ideas that would help in carrying out their respective enforcement work. He added that the two-week programme was held in light of the recognition on the importance to foster convergence on competition policy and competition enforcement practices across jurisdictions. The DG Competition looked forward to continuing the exchanges and cooperation developed under the programme.

Throughout the course, leading academicians and practitioners delivered lectures on important components of the EU competition law as stipulated under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and accompanying guidelines published by the European Commission, which included topics on mergers and acquisitions, abuse of dominant position, horizontal and vertical restraints, state aid control, public undertakings and the economics of competition law. Leading anti-competitive cases in the EU were also extensively discussed.

The training programme also included a visit to the European Commission where the Commission’s officials and a Judge from the Court of Justice of the European Union briefed them on the role of the DG Competition and the European Competition Network, as well as developments in the EU antitrust law.

The programme is part of the overall EU – Asia Competition Cooperation Project, which is supported by the DG Competition of the European Commission.