A series of keynotes exploring both long-standing challenges and emerging priorities in competition and antitrust policy.

Key themes will include mergers and acquisitions, market concentration, and potential structural remedies.

Amidst profound geopolitical and economic change, EU competition policy is under pressure to reconcile multiple, and often conflicting, objectives. Indeed, under a new mandate, the European Commission has called for a “new approach” — one that supports innovation and resilience, enabling European firms to compete and scale, while both maintaining strong antitrust enforcement and advancing wider policy goals such as sustainability, fairness, and security.

Framed by the EU’s broader competitiveness agenda, this opening panel will therefore set the scene for sessions to follow. Panelists will explore how Europe’s competition policy should evolve to tackle its current challenges, debating the risks tied to blending enforcement with industrial and political aims, and assessing how the EU can maintain its status as a global standard-setter in competition policy amid shifting international dynamics.

• What strategic vision for EU competition policy is emerging, and how does it compare to both past approaches and the Commission’s mandate?
  
• How closely do competition policy priorities align with the EU’s wider competitiveness agenda? How should the EU balance its goals of helping firms scale globally (as laid out in the Competitiveness Compass) with preserving strong antitrust enforcement to protect consumers and market fairness?
  
• How can competition tools be adapted to account for broader EU goals around sustainability, social fairness, and security?
  
• How are approaches at a member state level diverging from or complementing the EU’s strategy?
  
• To what extent should competition policy be used proactively to reinforce the EU’s strategic autonomy amid global geopolitical and technological competition?
  
• Are current enforcement tools and institutional resources sufficient for the challenges of fast-changing markets and global value chains?

Looking ahead, how might the EU’s approach to competition and antitrust evolve across the short, medium, and long term?
What should be the EU’s ambition level over the next 5 years in terms of actionable reforms (e.g. completing merger guideline revisions, updating block exemptions, adjusting procedural rights) to respond to both internal and external competitive pressures?

The EU is currently undertaking one of the most significant reviews of its competition enforcement architecture to date. The Commission has actively sought feedback on its Antitrust Enforcement Framework, as well as both its Horizontal (2004) and Non-Horizontal (2008) Merger Guidelines, having launched Calls for Evidence on the topics in July and May 2025 respectively. These reforms are expected to modernise antitrust procedures and ensure a dynamic and competitive single market, keeping pace with digitalisation, cross-border economic change, and evolving market dynamics.

In this session, panellists will therefore explore the priorities, trade-offs, and challenges of updating the instruments of EU competition policy and antirust enforcement. Amongst other themes, they will examine how investigations might be accelerated without sacrificing due process, review possible enhancements to investigative powers and interim measures, and consider opportunities to simplify access to case files, third-party participation, and coordination with national competition authorities. With stakeholder feedback actively gathered, this discussion offers a timely chance to reflect on how Europe can strike the right balance between speed, fairness, and effectiveness in its enforcement system.

• Can the current EU competition policy toolkit adequately address fast-moving global value chains and digital markets?
  What are its main limitations, and how can policymakers go about improving them?
  
• What lessons have emerged from 20 years of experience with Regulation 1/2003 and 773/2004? What are our thoughts on the Call for Evidence, expected reforms, and what specific revisions are necessary?
  
• What changes could improve access to the Commission’s file and third-party complainant participation in investigations?
  
• Given the Commission’s 2024 evaluation of Regulations 1/2003 and 773/2004 identified specific delays and inefficient, how can the Commission ensure faster and more effective investigations without undermining procedural fairness? To what extent should the Commission’s investigative and decision-making powers (e.g. inspections, interim measures, commitments) be expanded or recalibrated?
• What reforms are needed in both Horizontal and Non-Horizontal merger control, and in keeping with the EU’s competitiveness agenda, how can the Commission better integrate dynamic effects (such as innovation, R&D investment, and potential market entry) into its merger review regime, particularly in deals involving nascent or disruptive firms?
• What improvements are needed to strengthen co-enforcement with national authorities and courts under the European Competition Network?
  
• How should enforcement tools be updated to reflect digitalisation and new market realities? Have current improvements gone far enough?

The relationship between the EU’s competition authorities and the world’s major technology companies remains one of the most closely observed dynamics in global economic governance. Framed by instruments like the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and the Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as Europe’s other established antitrust enforcement tools, this dynamic stands at the intersection of geopolitics, trade, competition and the digital economy.

As this relationship develops, this session will explore how EU competition policy is adapting and evolving. Panelists will discuss whether recent European measures are opening markets, risking regulatory fragmentation, or setting new global standards. They will also reflect on the political, economic, and geopolitical dimensions of this regulatory shift — considering impacts on transatlantic cooperation, market access, and digital governance. Given intense ongoing developments in AI, this session will also offer an opportunity to examine the EU AI Act and its implications for competition and antitrust enforcement.

• How has the EU positioned itself as a regulatory counterweight to large technology firms, and what effects has this had so far, particularly under the DMA and recent antitrust cases?
  Given the early high-profile DMA enforcement actions (e.g. Apple, Meta), can we expect equally aggressive enforcement of antitrust obligations moving forward?
  
• What are the key takeaways from recent competition cases involving global tech firms? For instance, how have theories of harm shifted (tying, self-preferencing, data use)? Which anticipated reforms to the EU’s Antitrust Enforcement Framework and Merger Guidelines are likely to be most disruptive for big global firms?
  
• How are DMA and DSA measures affecting European competitiveness? Do they help smaller innovators catch up, or do they risk burdening EU-based firms when competing globally? How might DMA obligations or AI rules affect the ability of EU-based technology firms  to compete globally, especially when facing firms from jurisdictions with less stringent regulation?
  
• How does Europe’s growing emphasis on digital sovereignty square with established global competition principles, international trade norms, and its strict enforcement of rules applying to large tech firms?
• What impacts is the AI Act having on competition and antitrust enforcement, especially around access to data, algorithmic conduct, and investigative powers?
• How are other jurisdictions (China, Japan, India, the G7) responding to the EU’s regulatory model for major tech firms and AI-developers, and what lessons might be drawn for harmonisation or divergence?
• How much are geopolitical pressures, trade relationships, and lobbying shaping the EU’s approach to tech regulation, and can the EU maintain its regulatory course in the face of external pressures?

An afternoon keynote exploring both long-standing challenges and emerging priorities in competition and antitrust policy.

Key themes will include mergers and acquisitions, market concentration, and potential structural remedies.

In an increasingly turbulent global arena, the role and impact of European competition policy is under growing scrutiny. Accordingly, this session examines how EU competition policy can remain effective in a world of divergent enforcement philosophies, contested supply chains, and strained multilateral governance.

Panellists will examine how Europe’s relationship with global powers is shaping its approach to antitrust and industrial policy, and where the impacts of this are already emerging. Topics will also include a comparison of global enforcement trends; the potential for multilateral fora like the WTO to help reduce regulatory fragmentation; and the degree to which Member States are stepping up on the international stage.

• How is Europe’s relationship with global powers evolving, and what do those changes mean for competition policy and regulatory strategy?
  In a world shaped by fragmentation, tariffs, subsidies, and state-led industrial strategies, how can EU competition policy adapt to preserve both competitiveness and fairness?
  
• To what extent can the EU still act as a global standard-setter in competition policy, and in what areas might its influence weaken?
  
• Given current geopolitical turbulence, what balance should Member States strike between protecting their national interests and pursuing EU-level coherence in competition enforcement?
  
• How does the EU’s competition agenda align with broader global governance debates, such as the future of the WTO, and what role can multilateral mechanisms play in reducing regulatory fragmentation while supporting European competitiveness?
  
• Looking forward, how should Europe position itself in global competition and digital policy debates to be both principled and competitive?

This presents an opportunity for Member State regulators to present a case study illustrating their approach to competition policy and antitrust enforcement.

They will explore the real-world challenges, adaptations, and outcomes of their policies in the national context.

Europe’s Single Market is increasingly pressured by rapid technological advances, intensifying global competition, and shifting geopolitical dynamics. In this context, there is growing demand for more targeted and proactive strategy and policy that works in harmony with competition rules.

Accordingly, this session will explore the tensions between fair competition, industrial policy and market forces in the EU’s Single Market. Discussion will examine how the Single Market Strategy is influencing competition policy and antitrust regulation, and consider how Europe’s competition framework and industrial policy might better align to support long-term competitiveness without compromising fairness. In line with the 2025 Omnibus IV package, panelists will also reflect on the role of SMEs, Mid-Caps, and the newly defined category of Small Mid-Caps (SMCs).

• In what ways does the 2025 Single Market Strategy meaningfully alter competition policy to support industrial priorities like scale, resilience, and strategic autonomy? Which Single Market barriers (such as regulatory overlap, divergent standards, administrative burden, or uneven enforcement) most hinder cross-border scaling, and how effectively does the Strategy remove them.
  
• How should competition rules evolve to allow greater flexibility for European champions and cooperation in strategic sectors, without compromising fair market conditions? How should the EU balance open markets with the need for scale and strategic autonomy in globally contested value chains?
  
• What improvements are needed in enforcement mechanisms to ensure national authorities implement Single Market rules consistently and reduce regulatory divergence?
• What improvements are needed in enforcement mechanisms to ensure national authorities implement Single Market rules consistently and reduce regulatory divergence?
• What role should SMEs, Mid-Caps, and newly defined Small Mid-Caps (SMCs) play in Europe’s competitiveness, and which proportionality tools actually help them scale? What is the impact of these descriptions on competition policy and antitrust enforcement?
• Now over a year on from the Draghi Report, how should Europe balance the need for greater coordination and unified strategy with preserving market openness and preventing protectionism.

To conclude the inaugural Brussels Competition Policy Conference, delegates are invited to discuss the profound impacts of generative AI on both European competition policy and antirust enforcement.

While these technologies unleashing unprecedented opportunities for innovation, economic growth, and societal benefit, they raise important questions for the adequacy and adaptability of existing competition and intellectual property (IP) frameworks both here, in Europe, as well as across the international arena.