2 December 2022, Budapest – The meeting of the OECD's Competition Committee in Paris has come to a close, with the Hungarian Competition Authority as a highly active and contributing member country. During the week, the organisation adopted the 2022 Annual Report and next year's programme plans of the OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition, which were presented to the Competition Committee by Csaba Balázs Rigó.

On Friday 2 December 2022, the one-week winter session of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the OECD's "Competition Week", came to an end.

The GVH was highly active among the competition authorities in Europe.

During the first half of the week, the working groups held their meetings with representatives of the OECD member countries' authorities. The Hungarian Competition Authority (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal – GVH) proved to be one of the most active member states of the European Union during the so-called "Best Practice Roundtables on Competition Policy" for discussing the experiences of the member states, as it presented the Hungarian application of the law to the experts of the OECD member states on 5 topics. The GVH has thus been able to present its practice to OECD member states on the exclusion of infringing undertakings from public procurement and the prohibition of their managers, on competition and inflation issues, on the links between foreign direct investment and merger control, on the relations between competition authorities and sector regulators, and on remedies and commitments in abuse of (or significant market power) dominant position cases.

Csaba Balázs Rigó: every citizen of the region can benefit from the cooperation between the GVH and the OECD

During the week, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, also presented the programme plans for next year of the Budapest Regional Centre for Competition (RCC), which is jointly operated with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and which had a record year this year, and which were approved by the governing body of the OECD's Competition Committee. The Centre provides capacity building assistance and policy advice through workshops, seminars and training programmes on competition law and policy for officials in competition enforcement agencies and other parts of government, sector regulators, judges and others. The Centre builds on the expertise of the OECD and the GVH to provide support in Eastern, South-Eastern and Central European countries. Hungary thus plays a leading role in the region in terms of participation in the development of transition economies and technical assistance. The 2023 programme has been specifically designed by the GVH to adapt easily to the uncertainties in the world.

Speaking about the importance of the ROK, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the GVH, said: „The joint OECD and GVH Regional Training Centre for Competition in Budapest will raise Hungary's international reputation, strengthen the region, and focus on up-to-date knowledge, effective investigation and analysis methods, and international competition experience in competition enforcement that will directly benefit all residents of Hungary and the region served. Our work also aims to contribute to the development of a competition culture in the countries that are about to join the European Union.”

Next year, the ROK will offer a full range of training programs for beneficiary competition authorities, including seminars, newsletters, video projects and the organisation's annual report.  More information on the activities of the training centre can be found on the websites of the GVH and the RCC.

Press Office of the GVH

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