THE FIRST SUPRANATIONAL POLICY IN THE EUROPEAN-UNION - COMPETITION POLICY

Competition policy has become a salient issue in the last decade. The purpose of this article is to widen discussion amongst political scien tists of an issue that has been dominated by the disciplines of econom ics and law. The concept of a competition policy is the foundation sto ne of the entire European Union. It lies at the very heart of efforts to establish a common market and within the EU competition policy aren a the decision making powers have laid firmly with the supranational i nstitutions. This article provides an overview of the issue; it traces the constitutive foundations of policy and discusses the functions of the core EU competition policy actors. It is primarily concerned with the European Commission, in particular, DGIV. The paper accounts for DGIV's metamorphosis in the 1980s and the myriad of problems now confr onting its procedures and efficiency in the 1990s. Whether these defec ts can be resolved will ultimately determine the fate of DGIV. Argumen ts for institutional reform are raging through the European institutio ns and DGIV provides no exception. The paper concludes with a discussi on on the plausibility of the creation of an independent European Comp etition Office, modelled on the role of the German Federal Cartel Offi ce.