Brown’s 'EU competition panel’ rejected
‘Single market investigation’ to be kept in-house
A proposal by UK chancellor Gordon Brown that the EU set up an independent
competition panel to investigate market sectors which have not liberalised
sufficiently, has been rejected.
EC commissioner for monetary affairs, Joaquin Almunia agreed with Brown of
the need to move more swiftly to a single market economy, but rejected his
proposal which would have kept the market investigation separate from the
European Commission.
Almunia said the suggestion of a new competition panel was not as efficient
as the current structures.
‘The most efficient and respected experts in Europe are in the commission,’
AFX reported him as saying