April 15th Conference in Brussels

BRUSSELS – The Open Markets Institute and several civil society partners active in the European Union have published “Rebalancing Europe: A New Economic Agenda for Tackling Monopoly Power,” a new roadmap for the next European Commission and Parliament that sets out how policymakers should more effectively address monopoly power and control in Europe. 

The goals set out in the roadmap are ambitious yet necessary and achievable for effectively protecting democracy and economic liberty in Europe: 

“What is required is a return to the original vision that built Europe: one in which power is widely and fairly distributed, and powerful corporations are not allowed to subvert the public interest,” the publication reads. “The next European Commission must develop a coherent plan to deliver on this vision and restore freedom, opportunity, and prosperity to all its citizens by reining in and dispersing concentrated economic power.” 

Open Markets Europe Director Max von Thun, one of the plan’s authors, said: “We can trace numerous crises facing Europe back to extreme concentrations of economic power: the undermining of democracy, public debate and innovation by a handful of tech giants; the threat to security and resilience from highly concentrated industries and supply chains; and the central role of monopolistic corporations in pushing up prices, driving down wages and working conditions, and undermining the fight against climate change.  

“What’s needed in Europe,” von Thun continued, “is a clearly defined set of solutions for reining in corporate power over our democracy and economy, which our roadmap provides.” 

The “Rebalancing Europe” plan covers six key policy priorities and 18 tactical recommendations for better achieving them. The six policy priorities include: 

1. Replacing the EU’s outdated approach to competition policy with a more flexible paradigm that incorporates a greater variety of economic and non-economic objectives and a wider set of stakeholders. This new paradigm should promote specific political economic outcomes including a robust democracy, a safe, open and interoperable digital ecosystem, an innovative and resilient economy, and a free and pluralistic media. 

2. Introducing a cross-Commission mandate to use all available means to tackle concentration of economic power and control in the EU, as well as Europe’s dangerous dependence on concentrated supply chains abroad. This should include greater coordination and coherence of competition, trade, industrial, data protection, digital, labor, consumer protection and tax policies and enforcement. 

3. Granting the Commission new powers to investigate monopolistic control and conduct across entire industries and not just specific companies, including the ability to swiftly impose remedies and sanctions where necessary. 

4. Deploying more bright-line rules and structural remedies in competition investigations, including ordering corporate divestments, prohibiting anti-competitive mergers, and banning outright exploitative corporate behaviors and the business models that support them. 

5. Maximizing the potential of industrial policy and state aid to create a more diverse and balanced economy, while preventing them from being used to facilitate greater economic concentration and the emergence of national or European “champions”. Where state aid is granted to dominant corporations, this should be accompanied by clawback provisions and strict limitations on executive pay, share buybacks, dividends and acquisitions. Subsidies that fund the extraction, production and consumption of fossil fuels should be banned outright. 

6. Empowering citizens and civil society to participate in both the development and enforcement of competition policy, including merger and antitrust investigations, proceedings before EU courts, enforcement of related legislation including the Digital Markets Act, and initiatives to reform or update competition law. This should include making it easier for civil society and consumer representatives to receive “interested third party” status in competition proceedings. 

Open Markets and partners will also host a conference on April 15th in Brussels at which policymakers, advocates, and experts will debate roadmap’s recommendations at greater length.  

The roadmap’s core signatories are Open Markets, SOMO, Balanced Economy Project, Foxglove, Lobby Control, Rebalance Now, The Good Lobby, and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), with further support from ARTICLE 19, AlgorithmWatch, Digital Courage, the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP), World Economy, Ecology, Development (WEED) and Aktion Agrar. 

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