LITHUANIAN COMPETITION ENFORCERS SHARED BEST PRACTICES WITH GEORGIAN COLLEAGUES

Representatives from Georgian Competition Agency took part in a study visit to Lithuanian Competition Council (KT) on December 3-5.

Members of the KT, including the Chairman, shared best Lithuanian practices in competition advocacy, mergers and acquisitions, bid rigging, supervision of antitrust agreements and anti-competitive behavior by public administrative bodies.

The programme of the study visit included both practical workshops and individual consultations by members of Lithuanian Competition Council.

Competition experts from Georgia and Lithuania has also discussed policies of sectorial regulation, processes of drafting, reviewing and amending competition related legislation.

Georgian Free Trade and Competition agency was founded in 2010, and merged with State Procurement Agency in 2012. In 2014 both agencies were separated and Georgian Competition Agency now executes as an independent body forming and implementing competition politics in the country.

Lithuanian Competition Council referred by Global Competition Review as having “nearly the strongest competition efforts in Europe” is keen on sharing best practices and experience of a small agency with international colleagues. Together with Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (Germany) KT successfully implemented a two-year long project on strengthening competition enforcement capacities in Armenia and is about to start a similar project in Egypt. Some experts from KT has also consulted Bosnian and Georgian colleagues on an individual basis.

The study visit to Lithuania is a part of an international project aiming to strengthen administrative capacities of Georgian competition enforcers funded. This visit was supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ, German Cooperation Society) in Georgia.