The European Competition Forum
The Europe Committee of the Brussels Bar (French order) is launching its European Competition Forum on Friday 28 April 2006.Brussels Legal spoke with Frédéric Puel about the new Brussels-based Forum. We started by asking about the purpose of the Forum.
BL: What is the European Competition Forum?
FP: The French-speaking Brussels Bar's European committee has created a discussion medium where competition specialists can debate current matters.
The European Competition Forum will facilitate discussion of competition law issues by a range of interested parties: DG Competition officials, company lawyers, private practitioners, academics and economists. The aim is for the Forum to meet once every three months.
As a competition law private practitioner, I think the European Competition Forum will be an exciting opportunity for discussion in a 'non-conflict' environment. Specific cases will not be discussed, the focus will be more on the general issues involved in current matters.
The first session of the European Competition Forum (28th April) is focused on Cartel and Leniency. I guess that the Commission will present its way to deal with companies applying for leniency when we will raise certain criticism vis-Ã -vis this system.
BL: Who is supporting the European Competition Forum?
FP: The Forum has the support of the French-speaking Brussels Bar and two media partners, the magazines 'Concurrences' and 'Journal de Tribunaux Droit Europeen'. 'Concurrences' will be publishing a summary of each Forum.
Both the Batonnier, John Bigwood, and the Director-General of DG COMP, Philip Lowe, will address the Forum's first event.
BL: Which languages are used at the Forum?
FP: Speaker's presentations at the Forum are in French only. Unfortunately our meetings do not have a budget for simultaneous translation into other languages.
However during the question and answer session attendees are welcome to put their questions in English to the invited speakers.
BL: And there has been a lot of interest in the first Forum event?
FP: Yes the first Forum - on the subject of the Leniency Notice - is nearly fully-booked.
There will be further events later this year, so if anyone is looking for more information about the Forum, they should contact Géraldine Gathy, FIDAL International at ggathy@fidalinternational.com.
BL: Good luck and thank you for your time.
Author: Brussels Legal ©
Published: 25 April
Location: Brussels Legal/Archive/Competition Law: Articles
