Membership in the EU and the OECD, work on digital markets: AMCU strengthens cooperation with Nordic countries competition authorities

Challenges and tasks set before the Ukrainian competition authority by the war and assistance which is needed by AMCU in the process of overcoming them.

This was discussed on August 25^th at the first online meeting of the top management of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and representatives of competition authorities of the Northern Europe countries.

During her introductory speech at the beginning of the meeting, the Chair of the AMCU Olha Pishchanska, thanked her colleagues for the support of the Nordic countries not only in the military and financial spheres, but also regarding the introduction of economic sanctions against russia.

She focused on the fact that currently the main task of the AMCU is to help the State to “withstand on the economic front”, to ensure the protection of competition in the markets related to the future reconstruction of Ukraine (markets of transportation, construction materials, energy, etc.) and to remove obstacles in the process of business relocation.

“In the international sphere, the President and the Government have identified European integration and the acquisition of membership in the European Union as the key tasks of every authority in our country. Separately, AMCU is working on obtaining the status of a member of the OECD Competition Committee. In this context, we would be grateful to our partners, for example, for help in organizing the AMCU audit prior to joining the OECD Committee. We have been working fruitfully for a long time on the implementation of European law with such well-known technical assistance projects as Twining and USAID”, said Olha Pishchanska.

Besides that, the Chair of the AMCU focused on the need of the Ukrainian authority to exchange experience with partners regarding approaches and methods of working in digital markets. According to her, they are currently new to Ukraine. At the same time, she reminded that competition authorities of the Nordic countries signed the Memorandum entitled “Digital platforms and the potential changes to competition law at the European level” in 2020 and began to exchange experience and work together in this area. “It would be useful for us to learn about the results of this cooperation”, said the Chair of the AMCU.

In his turn, State Commissioner of the AMCU Serhii Shershun, in the context of the proposed strengthening of cooperation in digital markets, invited partners to join in holding international workshops for AMCU specialists:

“We would be grateful to our colleagues from the Nordic competition authorities if their representatives could also share their experience at these trainings. For example, to talk about the methods and approaches to exposing collusion or abuses in these markets”, said the State Commissioner.

In response, the Head of the Office for International Cooperation of the Norwegian Competition Authority, Kjell J. Sunnevåg, on behalf of the agencies of the Nordic countries, expressed his admiration for the courage and willpower of Ukrainians in the fight against the aggressor and separately noted the efforts of the AMCU, which are important for ensuring the stability of the economy. He assured his Ukrainian colleagues that the partners are determined to seriously strengthen cooperation and are ready to provide Ukraine with the necessary support in the process of European integration and membership in the OECD Competition Committee.

For the reference*: Northern or Nordic countries (Norden) is a concept that includes Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, as well as Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which are part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The countries cooperate on the basis of the Helsinki Accords and, despite certain differences, share the Nordic model of economy and social structure.