Budapest, 1 July 2024 – Fair market competition is a fundamental condition for economic competitiveness, and the enlargement of the European Union to the Western Balkans is an important Hungarian national interest. In this light, the Hungarian Competition Authority (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal – GVH) is actively supporting the objectives of the Hungarian EU Presidency, which started today. The GVH will organise the 50th European Competition Day in Budapest in October, and the national competition authority will also contribute to the success of the Hungarian EU Presidency through its active international involvement and professional support.
The Hungarian Competition Authority as a national competition authority of the EU Member States, not only enforces national laws, but also supervises EU competition rules at home. The GVH is one of the few public authorities that directly apply the competition provisions of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). In applying the competition rules of the TFEU, the members of the European Competition Network (ECN) work closely together to ensure the effectiveness and consistency of enforcement. In addition to the above-mentioned tasks, the GVH is actively involved in the Commission's working groups on antitrust, mergers and dominant position cases, among others, which fall within its remit. The GVH plays an important professional liaison role between Hungarian and EU competition policy.
Hungary will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union for six months from 1 July 2024. With its decades of policy expertise and its experience in the joint application of European law, the GVH also intends to contribute to the success of the Hungarian EU Presidency. In particular its two main themes, competitiveness and enlargement policy. Fair market competition is an essential element of economic competitiveness, while the national competition authority has for many years played a central role in the development of the region's transition economies, including through the OECD-GVH Budapest Regional Centre for Competition (RCC), established in 2005. Last summer, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the GVH, and Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, discussed the role of the Competition Authority in enlargement policy and the importance of enlargement to the Western Balkans. To sum up, the GVH actively supports the Government in the tasks of the Presidency within the scope of its professional competences.
The Hungarian Competition Authority, in cooperation with the Ministry of European Union Affairs, is organising the traditional European Competition Day in Budapest on 22 October. The international conference, which has been organised every six months since 2000, is an important professional event for EU presidencies and European competition policy. The conference in the Hungarian capital will focus on competitiveness, sustainability, and the application of artificial intelligence. The importance of the event is enhanced by the fact that this will be the 50th European Competition Day. In support of enlargement policy objectives, the GVH is inviting the competition authorities of 8 EU candidate countries to the conference, in addition to the competition authorities of the 27 EU Member States and the European Commission.
GVH Public Service Communications Section
Further information:
Bálint Horváth, Head of Communication +36 20 238 6939
Katalin Gondolovics, Spokesperson +36 30 603 1170