Joaquín Almunia, Competition
(Spain, Socialist)

Background

Joaquín Almunia has been a European Commissioner since 2004, first for Economic and Monetary Affairs (succeeding Pedro Solbes who returned to domestic Spanish politics in Spring 2004) and now for Competition in Barroso II. In Barroso I, Almunia was charged with ensuring that EU Member States respected their commitment to the Stability and Growth Pact and gained valuable experience in withstanding political pressure from Member State Governments. At the same time, it allowed him to build close ties with the key financial decision-makers around Europe and more specifically on the Ecofin Council.

Stated objectives on taking office

• To overcome the crisis and ensure that Europe comes out of it better equipped for balanced and sustainable growth and for generating more jobs;
• To ensure strict compliance with European competition rules;
• To establish effective action against cartels;
• To adapt the general exemption scheme for agreements between manufacturers and retailers to the new patterns of trade, particularly e-commerce;
• To examine ways to “modernise” and “expedite” state aid control procedures;
• To guarantee access and provide affordable high quality public services to all EU citizens.

Members of the Cabinet

Carlos MARTINEZ MONGAY, Head of Cabinet
Guillaume LORIOT, Deputy Head of Cabinet, Antitrust and Merger Control
Anna JAROSZ-FRIIS, Member, State Aid policy and enforcement in financial services and regional aid
Elisabetta RIGHINI, Member, State Aid policy and enforcement in the real economy
Sofia ALVES, Member, Cartels, Antitrust and Merger control in basic industries, transport and pharmaceuticals
Eliana GARCÉS TOLÓN, Member, Antitrust and Merger control in energy, environment, information industries and financial services
Ignacio PEREZ CALDENTEY, Member, Inter-institutional relations
Soledad BERNABÉ CASADO, Assistant to the Cabinet

Amelia TORRES, Spokeswoman

Main actions to date

• Ensuring close cooperation between regulators and competition law enforcers so that markets work for consumers;
• Reviewing how the Directorate-General for Competition makes decisions in order to ensure companies rights’ are respected;
• Drafting plans on EU collective redress measures;
• Developing plans to implement personal sanctions in cartel cases;
• Using the settlement procedure for the first time against 10 producers of memory chips from 1998- 2002 which allowed the Commission to speed up its investigations after the companies acknowledged the violations;
• Adopting new rules on the Motor Vehicle Block Exemption Regulation, which expires on 1 June.

What to expect

After six years in Brussels, Almunia is a well established and respected figure in the EU political landscape. His term as Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, where he demonstrated competence and experience in confronting powerful EU Member State governments, will certainly serve him well during his term as Competition Commissioner. In his new role, he will have even more power, and given his CV, one can expect him to make full use of it to impose compliance with EU competition rules on economic actors. The biggest challenge facing Commissioner Almunia will no doubt be to ensure an orderly exit from the financial crisis. To this effect, he will have to monitor and closely watch the compliance of the financial institutions and other economic actors with the EU restructuring plan. He must be constantly vigilant to ensure these companies stay in line with EU competition law.