The European Competition Law Annual 2000 is fifth in a series of volumes following the annual Workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University in Florence. The present volume reproduces the materials of a roundtable debate that took place at the EUI in June 2000 among senior representatives of EU institutions,renowned academics and international legal experts in the field of antitrust on the proposals made by the European Commission for the reform and decentralisation of EC antitrust enforcement. The contributions and commentaries included in this volume address in particular the following issues: a) the compatibility of the Commission's reform proposal with the provisions of the EC Treaty, b) how to ensure coherence, efficiency and legal certainty in a decentralised system of implementing EC antitrust provisions, and c) the problems posed by the Commission's reform proposal for the judiciary. This publication is addressed to scholars, legal practitioners and representatives of the business community following the on-going process of reform of EC antitrust.

Recoge: 1. Substantive remedies - 2. Procesural issues - 3. Arbitration courts - 4. Criminal sanctions.

The European Competition Law Annual 2002 is the seventh in a series of volumes following the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials of the roundtable debate that took place at the seventh Workshop.

The European Competition Law Annual 2004 is ninth in a series of volumes following the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials of the roundtable debate that took place at the ninth edition of the workshop (11-12 June 2004), which examined the relationship between competition law and the regulation of (liberal) professions. The (liberal) professions and the rules governing their functioning have become of interest for EC competition law enforcement since the early nineties, making the object of a series of Commission decisions and judgments of the European courts. The subject has gained in importance in the perspective of the recent decentralisation of EC antitrust enforcement. The regulation of (liberal) professions is also a matter of increasing concern from the perspective of freedom of services in the internal market. The workshop participants - a group of senior representatives of the Commission and the national competition authorities of some Member States, reknown international academics and legal practitioners - discussed the economic, legal and political/institutional issues that arise in the relationship between competition law and the regulation of (liberal) professions.

The European Competition Law Annual 2003 is the eighth in a series of volumes following the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials of the roundtable debate that took place at the eighth Workshop and is dedicated to the question What is an Abuse of a Dominant Position?. It contains the usual mix of expert discussion and expert papers presented by the participants at this annual gathering of leading EU and international experts on competition law.

This volume contains papers presented at the 18th Annual EU Competition Law and Policy Workshop. The papers examine means of balancing effective (public) competition law enforcement and the requirements of legitimate and accountable exercise of public authority. The authors address the design and performance of various enforcement tools at European and national levels, including sanctions and remedies but also distinctive instruments under Regulation 1/2003 (eg commitment procedures) and under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 106(3) when used as a basis for infringement procedures). From the perspective of legitimacy, reflections focus on the implications of fundamental rights standards and general principles of law for the EU's complex and quasi-federal enforcement architecture. Issues that may sometimes escape judicial scrutiny are also discussed, such as how agencies prioritise their activities, and how investigation responsibilities are distributed within the European Competition Network. Effectiveness and legitimacy are then considered in the context of public enforcement cooperation beyond the EU, where international organisations, regional cooperation and a range of formal and informal modes of governance prevail.