Project Title: Advanced training of national judges and prosecutors from Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece on enforcement of EU competition law
Countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece
Overall Objectives:
The Project addresses both the objectives of training and networking, through the organization of three country workshops, one international joint workshop and one open conference. It intends to provide advanced and interactive training to Judges and Prosecutors from Bulgaria, Cyprus and Greece, who are involved in the adjudication of EU Competition Law affairs in their countries.
The specific objectives of the project are:
- Fifty (50) members of the Judiciary (i.e., judges and prosecutors) originating in three (3) different EU Member States will be trained on how to effectively apply EU Competition Law and address domestic law constraints. The training will provide a thorough grounding in the essentials of economic analysis in Competition Law and prepare participants for issues likely to arise in the enforcement of Competition Law.
- Fifteen (15) members of the Judiciary from all three project countries will be selected to further specialize on the main challenges in applying economic techniques in processing and adjudicating cases involving EU Competition Law.
- The Project will identify the most important problems the judiciary faces in every project country when processing and adjudicating competition law cases, and ways to address such problems so that EU Competition Law is better enforced in each country.
- The members of the judiciary involved in the Project will act as multipliers within their justice communities with a view to addressing impediments existing in their domestic legal orders when enforcing EU Competition Law.
Activities:
- Phase A) Three Country Workshops: One training workshop will be held in every Project Country. The duration of each Country Seminar has been designed in order to address the specific needs of the domestic judiciary and will be of 3 days of 6 hours per day. A total of 50 Judges and Prosecutors will participate to the three Country Seminars: 20 in Bulgaria, 10 in Cyprus and 20 in Greece. The seminars will focus on issues of both general interest and sector-specific interest. Emphasis will also be given to the evolutionary aspects of policymaking and competition law enforcement, given the increasing importance and use of economic analysis. The training curriculum of the workshops will be defined in consultation with the judicial authorities and the Competition Authorities in each Project Country.
- Phase B) One Joint Workshop: A team of 15 judges and prosecutors (5 Greeks, 5 Bulgarians and 5 Cypriots) will be selected following Phase A among members of the judiciary who have attended the country workshops. This group will participate in a 2 day workshop to be held in Athens, Greece. The workshop will focus on addressing the main difficulties in applying economic techniques in processing and adjudicating EU Competition Law cases at country level and the ways to overcome them.
- Phase C) One Open Conference: the Project will organize a one-day open conference in Athens, Greece, on the issue of «Economic Principles Underlying EU Competition Law». The objective of this conference will be for the participating judges in the joint workshop to address the differences in the application of the basic economic principles in all three jurisdictions in a comparative approach. The presentations will be discussed with other members of the Judiciary, Academia and Law Practitioners.
- Phase D) Project Report: a Project Report will be prepared identifying the main difficulties in enforcing EU and national competition law in each project jurisdiction, with special emphasis on the application of economic principles, and proposing ways of action for remedying the same. The Project Report will be handed over to the competent authorities in every Project country for follow-up.
Funding Agency: DG Competition, European Commission
Leader: EPLO
Partners: Human Resource Development and Innovation Center (Greece); Center for Continuing Education at the Law Faculty of Sofia University (Bulgaria); Institute for Studies in Competition Law and Policy (IMEDIPA - Greece); Hellenic Council of State; Hellenic Competition Commission; Commission for the Protection of Competition of Cyprus; Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition; National School of Judges of the Hellenic Republic
Time Frame: 10/12/2016 to 9/2/2018
