1. Basic activities

a) Devising internal legal acts needed for the functioning of the Monopoly authority.

Taking into regard that the Monopoly authority is a relatively new body of the Ministry for Economy, devising internal legal acts necessary for its functioning is needed.

Deadline: January-February, 2001

b) Acting on client requests and in the line of duty, in accordance with the authorizations of the Monopoly authority set by the Law against limiting competition 

The Monopoly authority in accordance with legal authorization permanently monitors the conditions of the state which relate to business concentration and on client requests or in the line of duty it will instigate actions form its line of work and will bring decisions in accordance with the law.

Deadline: running

2. Monitoring the mergers and the market trends of the Republic of Macedonia

The enterprises, in accordance with the Law against limiting competition have an obligation to report mergers to the Monopoly authority, if in the past active year they have realized a certain volume of sales, defined by the Law. For accurate enforcing of the Law, the Monopoly authority must monitor conditions in the economy in the following period as well or if a merger that the Monopoly authority should be informed of is planned or has taken place, the Monopoly authority should request relevant information regarding the mergers from the merging subjects. Especially from the aspect that the Law against limiting competition is in force from April, 2000 and the enterprises are as yet insufficiently familiarized with the provisions from this Law.

Greater informing of the enterprises regarding their compulsory obligation to submit a report to the Monopoly authority for certain mergers, could be performed by preparing information material by the Monopoly authority and its submission to the Macedonian Stock Market. This information material is to be then submitted to all enterprises, which acquire over 25% of the shares of another enterprise.

Also, this information is to be submitted to the competent registry courts in the Republic, which will then submit it to the enterprises created by mergers that submitted registry requests to the court registry.

This information will also be submitted to the Agency for Privatization through which the obligation for reporting the merger will be stated to the legal subjects interested in buying state-owned enterprise equity recorded in the agency.

Also, the Monopoly authority will regularly monitor market conditions and if it concludes that certain provisions from the Law were breached, it will timely react by taking certain actions with the aim of providing a succinct enforcement of the Law.
This is especially for identifying the existence of abuse of the dominant market position by subjects in such a position.

Deadline: running

3. Cooperation with the Monopoly committee

For accurate enforcement of the provisions from the Law, intensifying of the cooperation between the Monopoly committee and the Monopoly authority is essential, for a more efficient and successful monitoring of certain market conditions from the viewpoint of the authorizations of the Monopoly authority provided by the Law.

Deadline: running

4. Revision of the Law against limiting competition 

By signing the stabilization and association agreement the Republic of Macedonia has an obligation to harmonize its own legislative with the legislative of EU countries. Thus, a revision of the Law against competition limiting is necessary with the aim of harmonizing certain provisions with competition regulations of the EU.

From this aspect the Monopoly authority will hire domestic and foreign experts from the field of Competition Law. The Monopoly authority is in the process of negotiations with GTZ (German technical aid foundation) for receiving expert and financial assistance for this goal. In realizing this activity the Monopoly authority will be in close cooperation with the Monopoly committee of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia.

Deadline: October-December, 2001

5. Education about competition and the Law against limiting competition 

Taking into account the fact that competition policy is a relative new category and it is also a key element of market economy and the European common market, the Monopoly authority started educating the expert and wider public.

This education would continue in the following forms:

a) Monopoly authority personnel training
Taking into account that the Law against Limiting Competition has been enacted in December 1999, with coming into force from April 2000 and that the Monopoly authority was formed in April 2000, personnel training through seminars, workshops and working stay in competing bodies of the countries with greater experience in usage of Competition Law needs to be furthered.
As a part of the technical assistance by GTZ (German technical aid foundation) the employees of the Monopoly authority will continue to attend courses in English and German.
b) Training of judges and lawyers
Further training is needed of judges that make decisions in second degree processes (process on an appeal) on the content of the Law itself and the general competition policy, and especially for the hitherto practice of the bodies for competition protection in market economy countries. This training will also include lawyers that have a significant role in the protection of clients' rights in regard to provisions from the Law.

c) Seminars for enterprises

From the Law against Limiting Competition derive certain rights and obligations for the enterprises as market participants. In order for them to be informed about their obligations and the consequences, which emerge in case of breaching law provisions, it is necessary to organize seminars and expert meetings with interpretations and scrutinizing certain provisions from the Law, especially the process for realizing their rights and obligations to the monopoly bodies.

The training of the employees in the Monopoly authority, the judges, the lawyers and the enterprises will be done by the Monopoly management in 2001 with technical assistance from GTZ (German technical aid foundation).

The Monopoly authority is negotiating receiving technical aid from FTC-Federal Trade Committee of the USA (a body in charge of enforcing the competition legislative in the USA).

Deadline: running

6. Public relations

The Monopoly management has already taken certain steps towards nearing the Law against Limiting Competition to the expert and wider public. These will continue in the following period as well.

The Monopoly management regularly publishes its articles in the magazine P&M of intellectual property, through which it mainly informs the expert public of its activities. However, we believe that these publications are made in a very narrow expert circle, because of which publications about the meaning of the Law, its authorizations and the work of the Monopoly authority should be made in the daily press and the television.

The development of a WEB page of the Monopoly authority and the opening of an official E-mail address is in progress. This will allow for a continuous informing of the public regarding all Monopoly authority activities.

In the forthcoming period the Monopoly authority will provide publication of the Law against Limiting Competition and comments on the Law, as well as informative leaflets and brochures. Activities for developing and publishing the Law against Limiting Competition as an author work of external collaborators in cooperation with the Monopoly authority is in progress.

Deadline: May-June, 2001

Running

7. Cooperation with state bodies and institutions

a) Cooperation with state bodies and institutions in the country

In its work the Monopoly authority will realize perpetual cooperation with state bodies and institutions that in their work apply the laws and other regulations that have similarities with the enforcement of the Law against Limiting Competition.

Special emphasis should be put on the cooperation with the Faculty of Economy and the Faculty of Law in Skopje which comprise departments for Competition Law.

b) Cooperation with competition bodies of other countries

The Monopoly authority has realized cooperation with competition bodies from several countries in the region and wider and these are: the Republic of Bulgaria, the Republic of Germany, the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia, the Republic of Turkey, the Republic of Hungary and the Republic of Romania. This cooperation will continue with greater intensity in the future as well, foremost from the aspect of exchanging experience and relevant information regarding conditions, problems and development experiences of the competition and the usage of competition laws.

With the competition protection committee of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Monopoly authority has signed a Cooperation memo and a cooperation program for 2001.

Deadline: running

8. Cooperation and assistance that the Monopoly authority is receiving from international foundations

In 2000 and 2001 the Monopoly authority has used and will continue using technical assistance from the German Technical Aid Foundation (GTZ). This foundation has appointed its expert (Mr. Herbert Sauter who has 30 years of experience in enforcing competition laws in Germany and the EU). Mr. Sauter makes occasional working visits during which he makes working consulting meetings with Monopoly authority employees and Monopoly committee members

The Monopoly authority in cooperation with GTZ will organize seminars and consultations with participation on Mr. Sauter's behalf for judges, lawyers and businessmen.

Note: A detailed program for realizing activities by the authorized representative of GTZ, Mr. Sauter, will be submitted in February and will be a part of this program.