The competition authorities of the region are strengthening their cooperation

The Economic Competition Office (GVH) was the first to raise the issue of strengthening and institutionalizing professional relations between the competition authorities of the region at the international competition law conference organized in the framework of the V4 Hungarian presidency in the spring of 2022. Following the proposal – at the initiative of the Polish competition authority – in addition to Hungary, the competition authorities of the seven other EU member states of the region (Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia) and two candidate countries (Moldova and Ukraine) will join on April 18, 2023 they agreed on their professional cooperation. The agreement was signed on behalf of the Hungarian authorities by Balázs Csaba Rigó, President of the Economic Competition Authority, in the Polish capital.

The primary goal of the ten closely cooperating competition authorities is to create an effective platform for the exchange of competition policy experiences and good practices, as well as the expansion of regional partnership between the participants. Within the framework of the cooperation, in the future, among other things, expert working groups, joint training programs, and annual management-level round table meetings will contribute to the common competition policy goals of the region. The operational organization is facilitated by a rotating presidency, which is first filled by the Polish competition authority.