A milestone for Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) came a few weeks ago when the country's courts, for the first time, upheld CPC's decision on illegality of a company's monopoly position. It concerned an investment fund that had created a monopoly in the milk purchasing market. "We take encouragement from these signals", Mr Dragan Penezic of the CPC said. Still much work lies ahead. In this light, Serbian representatives described themselves as honored and excited to work with UNCTAD in drafting policy recommendation and designing the follow-up technical assistance activities.
This cooperation will take place through a formal UNCTAD voluntary peer review on competition law and policy. Serbia will become the ninth country to undergo the process - this was revealed today at the 6th Review Conference of the UN Set, taking place in Geneva from the 8th to the 12th of November.
The voluntary peer review seems to be coming at a good time. After long deliberation, Serbia adopted a reformed law on protection of competition in early 2010. While the new policy strengthens the mandate of the CPC, its effect on the situation on the ground has been limited. "We need help educating our people on the practical implementation of competition law", Mr Penezic explained.
The previous country to be reviewed was Armenia, on which the report was examined at the afternoon session on Tuesday.
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