Celebrating the 50 years of the Treaty of the EU, leading scholars and practitioners came together at IESE (University of Navarra), on November 19-20, to take stock and speculate in the area of competition policy. The conference coincided with IESE's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Opening the two-day event with a keynote speech was Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition from the European Commission, who discussed the market differences between Spain and the rest of Europe.

"Spaniards have been paying more than the rest", alerted Kroes, due to the protective Spanish market refraining from competitiveness. She believes that to succeed in control and sanction, Spain must simplify their procedures to encourage the cooperation of companies. Thus, companies would be able to participate more where the Commission detects a lack of competition.

Kroes said "The new proposals will have benefits for the companies and the consumers," as companies will be able to reduce fines, consumers would benefit from more competitive prices.

Day one also featured talks on the restrictions of competition under Article 81 and the design of competition policy institutions. Other speakers on day one included; A. Jorge Padilla, Managing Director, LECG; Philip Lowe, Director-General for Competition, European Commission; Massimo Motta, Professor of Economics, European University Institute; John Vickers, Professor of Political Economy, University of Oxford; Bruce Lyons, Professor of Economics, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich.

The second day emphasized economic aspects of competition policy.

"State aid policy is an integral part of competition policy," said Lars-Hendrik Röller, Professor of Economics, Humboldt University, and President of European School of Management and Technology. Röller addressed the trends in state aids and applying the state aid structure to the R&D aid.

David Spector, Professor of Economics at CNRS continued the topic highlighting the "economists' unease with state aid." He outlined the main economic arguments in favor of state aid control, and reviewed the meaning and role of competition distortion and trade affectation.

Spector went on to talk about paternalistic and non-paternalistic justifications for state aid control.

Further discussions concerning regulations and competition policy were covered by an array of speakers. Among some of them were; William Kovacic, Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission; Martin Hellwig, Professor of Economics, University of Bonn, Director of Max Planck Institute; Jordi Gual, IESE Professor of Economics and Director, Research Department, La Caixa; Elena Carletti, Senior Researcher, Center for Financial Studies at the University of Frankfurt; Xavier Vives, IESE Professor of Economics; Richard Green, Director of the Institute for Energy Research and Policy (IERP), University of Birmingham.