Christine Lagarde: Competition policy in a changing world
Speech by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, at an event to mark the 15th anniversary of the Autorité de la concurrence, Paris, 5 November 2024.
The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.
It is truly a pleasure to be back here today to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Autorité de la concurrence.
Competition policy in Europe has always played an important role in ensuring the functioning of our Economic and Monetary Union. The main objective of competition policy has been to preserve competition within Member States and within the Single Market.
At the political level, these policy objectives were sometimes challenged, as they were seen as an obstacle to the goal of creating national champions in some sectors.
This apparent contradiction has now been aggravated by profound changes in the global economic and political landscape.
New technologies are transforming markets, new competitors are emerging globally, and governments are facing a new set of priorities, including louder calls for state aid and industrial policy.
As a result, some argue that the supposed trade-off between competition and competitiveness is becoming more accentuated – in the sense that competition policy is limiting EU companies' ability to compete against larger, in many cases state-backed, global rivals.
In my view, this trade-off is not inherent. We should avoid walking backwards into the future.
With a careful approach, Europe can preserve the benefits of competition while adapting to the changing world we are facing.