ABSTRACT
Instead of discriminating against non-EU firms, the EU attempts to address the competition–competitiveness dilemma by externally promoting competition law and policy. The EU has initially pursued the international transfer of its own competition rules to other countries, mainly based on formal negotiations and legal agreements, especially in the context of its enlargement policy. Furthermore, the EU took an initiative with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to create binding international competition rules. However, the EU's primary focus shifted to international cooperation and voluntary policy convergence through soft law, especially after the collapse of WTO negotiations on competition rulemaking. Since the EU's current external competition relations heavily rely on non-binding agreements and regulatory networks, such as the International Competition Network, rather than rulemaking bodies, it is difficult for the EU to translate its economic resources and regulatory capacity into direct influence on other countries. While the EU uses free trade agreements to promote competition law and policy externally, the role of competition provisions in these agreements is generally limited to the establishment of general principles. These findings suggest that the competition–competitiveness dilemma remains unresolved, despite the EU's political commitment to the externalisation of its own competition rules through various channels.
