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OECD competition assessment reviews. Greece. PDF

391 Pages·2014·3.117 MB·English
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OECD Competition Assessment Reviews GREECE Contents Executive summary OECD Competition Assessment Reviews Assessment and recommendations Chapter 1. Food processing GREECE Chapter 2. Retail trade Chapter 3. Building materials Chapter 4. Tourism Chapter 5. Horizontal obstacles to competition Chapter 6. Conclusion: Benefits from removing regulatory barriers to competition in Greece Annex A. Methodology Annex B. Legislation screening by sector O E C D C o m p e t it io n A s s e s s m e n t R e v ie w s G R E Consult this publication on line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264206090-en. E C E This work is published on the OECD iLibrary, which gathers all OECD books, periodicals and statistical databases. Visit www.oecd-ilibrary.org for more information. Co-financed by Greece and the European Union isbn 978-92-64-20608-3 24 2014 01 1 P 9HSTCQE*cagaid+ OECD Competition Assessment Reviews: Greece ThisreportwasfirstpresentedinAthens,on27November2013,bytheOECDSecretary-Generaltothe Greek Minister of Development and Competitiveness, HEKostisHatzidakis.The assessment and recommendationsincludedinthisreportreflecttheviewsoftheOECDSecretariat. Thisreportistheoutcomeoftheproject“CompetitionAssessmentofLawsandRegulationsinGreecein certainsectorsoftheGreekeconomy”.TheprojectwascarriedoutbyanOECDSecretariatteamofexperts basedinAthensandattheOECDHeadquartersinParis,inco-operationwithofficialsappointedbythe Greek PublicAdministration.The OECD provided the overall direction of the project, including the supervisionoftheanalysisandthedraftingofthereport. Under the project more than 1000pieces of legislation were collected, screened and analysed in depth. Throughouttheproject,theOECDteamconsultedatregularintervalswithaHigh-levelCommittee composedofseniorgovernmentofficialsoftheGreekMinistryofDevelopmentandCompetitiveness andotherrelevantGreekministries. ThisapproachbroughttheinternationalexperienceandtechnicalknowledgeoftheOECDtotheGreek administrationandservedtocreateabasisforcapacity-buildinginGreece,throughalearning-by-doing process. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD.The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisationorofthegovernmentsofitsmembercountries. Thisdocumentandanymapincludedhereinarewithoutprejudicetothestatusoforsovereigntyover any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory,cityorarea. Pleasecitethispublicationas: OECD(2014),OECDCompetitionAssessmentReviews:Greece,OECDPublishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264206090-en ISBN978-92-64-20608-3(print) ISBN978-92-64-20609-0(PDF) ThestatisticaldataforIsraelaresuppliedbyandundertheresponsibilityofthe relevantIsraeliauthorities.Theuse ofsuchdatabytheOECDiswithoutprejudicetothestatusoftheGolanHeights,EastJerusalemandIsraeli settlementsintheWestBankunderthetermsofinternationallaw. Photocredits:Cover©GregoryBuir/Fotolia.com. CorrigendatoOECDpublicationsmaybefoundonlineat:www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. ©OECD2014 Youcancopy,downloadorprintOECDcontentforyourownuse,andyoucanincludeexcerptsfromOECDpublications,databasesand multimediaproductsinyourowndocuments,presentations,blogs,websitesandteachingmaterials,providedthatsuitable acknowledgmentofthesourceandcopyrightownerisgiven.Allrequestsforpublicorcommercialuseandtranslationrightsshouldbe submittedtorights@oecd.org.Requestsforpermissiontophotocopyportionsofthismaterialforpublicorcommercialuseshallbe addresseddirectlytotheCopyrightClearanceCenter(CCC)[email protected]çaisd'exploitationdudroitdecopie (CFC)[email protected]. FOREWORD Foreword G reeceisgoingthroughthedeepestrecessionintheeuroarea.Sincetheonsetofthecrisisithas hadasharpcontractioninGDPandanincreaseinjoblessness,especiallyamongyouth.Stepshave beentakentostrengthenpublicfinancesandtoimplementthestructuralreformsthatareneededto restoregrowthandcompetitivenessoverthelongerterm. Enhancingcompetitionisessentialtothisend.Despiterecentreforms,Greekproductmarkets remainamongthemoststrictlyregulatedintheOECDarea,hinderingcompetitionandpreventing the price adjustments needed to support the recovery.This lack of competition is holding back the growth of productivity by limiting the entry and expansion of more productive and efficient firms, inhibitingforeigninvestmentandholdingbackinnovation. TheprojectonCompetitionAssessmentofLawsandRegulationsinGreecewasagreedbetween the Greek government and the OECD in November 2012 to address these problems by targeting regulatory barriers to competition in four key sectors of the Greek economy: food processing, retail trade, building materials and tourism. These four sectors together account for 21% of GDP and almost27%ofemployment,andareimportantdriversoffuturegrowth. ThroughthescrutinyoflegislationinkeysectorsoftheGreekeconomy,theOECDCompetition AssessmentProjectidentified555problematicregulationsand329provisionswherechangescould bemadetofostercompetition.Althoughitwasnotpossibletoquantifyallthebenefitsarisingfrom enhancedcompetition,OECDcalculationsestimatethetotaleffectfromrisingexpenditure,increased turnoverandlowerpricesfortheGreekconsumerataroundEUR5.2billionannually,orabout2.5% ofGDP.Thebenefitsofreforminthisareaaresizeable! By proposing concrete policy options for removing regulatory restrictions to competition, the ProjectcontributestotheGreekgovernment’sstructuralreformagenda.Fullimplementationofthe Project’s recommendations can do much to enhance the competitiveness of the Greek economy, stimulateproductivityandpromoteeconomicgrowthandjobcreationintheyearstocome. IcongratulatetheGreekauthoritiesontheeffortstheyhaveundertakensince2010toreinforce competition law and the work of the Hellenic Competition Commission, to simplify business administration and to liberalise professional services. These are courageous, necessary steps towardsbuildingabetterfutureforallGreeks. AngelGurría Secretary-General,OECD OECDCOMPETITIONASSESSMENTREVIEWS:GREECE©OECD2014 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements Thisreportistheresultofacollectiveeffortwhichstartedseveralyearsago,butcame to fruition when the CompetitionAssessment of Laws and Regulations in Greece project was formally launched in December 2012 in Athens, Greece, under the auspices of the MinisterofDevelopmentandCompetitiveness,HEKostisHatzidakis. ThisprojectwasfinancedbytheEuropeanSocialFund,andwasorganisedinthecontext of the technical assistance provided by the European UnionTask Force for Greece. Our thanksgototheTaskForceforGreecewhichprovidedsupportandcontributedtothevery difficulttaskofco-ordinatingaprojectofthismagnitude. Our particular thanks go to the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) which supported the project from its inception and contributed staff to work full-time for ten monthswiththeprojectteam.InadditiontothesecondedHCCstaffmemberswewould like to thank Dimitris Loukas, Vice-Chairman, Dionysia Xirokosta, Director-General, LefkotheaNtekaandKellyBenetatou,Directors,andEviChrysanthopoulou,HeadofUnit, for all their preparatory work and for the follow-on support by the HCC throughout the project. We would like to thank the members of the High-level Committee (HLC) who participatedinmeetingstodiscussthefindingsofthereportandwhowillberesponsible forthedisseminationandadvocacyoftherecommendationsinthisreport.TheHLCwas chaired by Serafim Tsokas, Secretary General of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness. The members were Socratis Alexiadis, Secretary General of Urban Planning, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change; Athanasios Bousios, Secretary General of the Ministry of MaritimeAffairs andAegean; Spyros Efstathopoulos, former Secretary General of Industry, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Stefanos Komninos, Secretary General of Commerce, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Anastasios Liaskos, Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism; Dimitrios Melas, Secretary General of Agricultural Policy and International Relations, Ministry of Rural Development and Food; Christina Papanikolaou, Secretary General of PublicHealth,MinistryofHealth;GeorgiosStergiou,SecretaryGeneralofConsumerAffairs and Secretary General of Industry, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Harris Theocharis,SecretaryGeneralofPublicRevenue,MinistryofFinance.Thefollowinghigh- levelofficialsalsoparticipatedinmeetings:AnastasiaMarkatou,DirectorofTouristPorts, Ministry ofTourism; andYannis Pyrgiotis, Secretary General ofTourist Infrastructure and Investments,MinistryofTourism. OECDCOMPETITIONASSESSMENTREVIEWS:GREECE©OECD2014 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For outstanding co-ordination throughout the project we would like to thank Persa Pantermaraki, government co-ordinator for the OECD CompetitionToolkit Project who workedtirelesslytoensuretheco-ordinationofthevariousanddisparatebodiesinvolved in the project; Effie Ioannou, Adviser to the Secretary General of Commerce who also participated in the co-ordination efforts; and Dimitrios Kolyvas,Advisor to the Secretary General of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness who was in charge of co- ordinatingthemeetingsoftheHigh-levelCommittee,andwhohelpedsupporttheproject fromwithintheSecretaryGeneral’soffice. In addition, we acknowledge the input from the following ministerial experts who participated actively in the project by providing information, advice and feedback throughout the project: Giota Anastasopoulou, Secretariat General of Public Works, Ministry of Infrastructure,Transport and Networks; NikolaosArvanitis, MaritimeAffairs, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Aegean; Roubini Bakopoulou, Secretariat General of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism; Stella Banteka, Secretariat General of Public Revenue, MinistryofFinance;GeorgiaBei,SecretariatGeneralofIndustry,MinistryofDevelopment andCompetitiveness;Dimitris,BourikosSecretariatGeneralofTaxandCustoms,Ministry of Finance; Apostolos Daflos, Secretariat General of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Athanasios Dimakis, Secretariat General of Commerce, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Georgios Dionysopoulos, Secretariat General of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Georgios Drosos, Secretariat General of Industry, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Chrysoula Galakou, Secretariat General of Commerce, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Konstantinos Georgoulakis, Secretariat General of Energy and Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change; Irini Gogou,SecretariatGeneralofEnergyandClimateChange,MinistryofEnvironment,Energy andClimateChange;NatassaKalogeropoulou,SecretariatGeneralofCommerce,Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Athina Kalyva, Secretariat General of Public Revenue,MinistryofFinance;LoukasKapolos,SecretariatGeneralofTourism,Ministryof Tourism; Maria Karathanasi, Secretariat General of Commerce, Ministry of Development andCompetitiveness;MariaKiposoglou,MaritimeAffairs,MinistryofMaritimeAffairsand Aegean; Andrianni Kokkini, Secretariat General of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Aggeliki Koskina, Secretariat General of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Eleni Kostopoulou, Secretariat General of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism; Aristomenis Kotsakis, General Secretariat of Public Revenue, Ministry of Finance; Eleni Koufosotiri, Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Aegean; Nikolaos Kouretas, Secretariat General of Environment, MinistryofEnvironment,EnergyandClimateChange;VickyKourou,SecretariatGeneralof Public Works, Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks; Aggeliki Kypreou, Secretariat General of Agriculture, Ministry of Rural Development and Food; Angela Ladopoulou, Secretariat General of Industry, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Aggeliki Michalopoulou, Secretariat General of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism; Dionysia Mintza, Secretariat General of Agriculture; Alexandra Nassou, SecretariatGeneralofCommerce,MinistryofDevelopmentandCompetitiveness;Christos Nikolsky, Secretariat General of Consumer Affairs, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Dimitra Panteleaki, Hellenic Food Authority (EFET), Ministry of Rural DevelopmentandFood;PanagiotaPapadaki,SecretariatGeneralofAgriculture,Ministryof RuralDevelopmentandFood;ChrysoulaPapadimitriou,SecretariatGeneralofAgriculture, 6 OECDCOMPETITIONASSESSMENTREVIEWS:GREECE©OECD2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS MinistryofRuralDevelopmentandFood;IoannisPoulos,SecretariatGeneralofConsumer Affairs, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; Antonios Rapatzikos, Maritime Affairs, Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Aegean; Penny Stamouli, Secretariat General of Agriculture,MinistryofRuralDevelopmentandFood;EvangeliaStavropoulou,Ministryof Infrastructure,TransportandNetworks;DionysiaStefanitsi,GeneralChemistryLaboratory of the State, Ministry of Finance; Dimitris Tsaglakis, General Secretariat of Tax and Customs, Ministry of Finance; ParaskeviTsami, Secretariat General of Consumer Affairs, MinistryofDevelopmentandCompetitiveness;ParaskevasTsiklidis,SecretariatGeneralof Commerce, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; SpyrosTzimas, Secretariat General of Energy and Climate Change, Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change; Anastasia Varagouli, Hellenic Food Authority (EFET), Ministry of Rural Development and Food; Anastasios Xanthopoulos, Secretariat General of Commerce, Ministry of Development and Competitiveness; and Thalia Xiromeritou, Secretariat GeneralofPublicWorks,MinistryofInfrastructure,TransportandNetworks.Wealsothank KalliopeSampani,DirectorofEYSED(SpecialCo-ordinationandImplementationOfficefor co-founded actions in the field of Commerce), General Secretariat of Commerce and Theodore Papageorgiou, President of the Monitoring and Acceptance Committee of the Project,fromtheMinistryofDevelopmentandCompetitiveness. We are especially grateful to the Supreme Council for Civil Personnel Selection (ASEP) whichprovideduswithofficespaceforthedurationoftheproject.Inparticularourthanksgo to the following staff members: GeorgiosVeis, President ofASEP; Kalliopi Stagka, Director; Dionisios Alexandropoulos, Georgia Aravantinou, Andreas Christofidis, Alexandros Christopoulos, Ioannis Georgiadis, Konstantinos Gotsis, Panos Deriziotis, Olga Klouvatou, TheocharisStamatis,DimitrisStrotos,MariaTsallaandCharalambosVougiouklis,allASEP. We would also like to thank the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), its member companiesandallaffiliatedsectoralassociationsfortheirconstructivecollaborationandhelp. Inparticular,wewouldliketoconveyourthankstotheFederationofHellenicFoodIndustries (SEVT), the HellenicAssociation of Chemical Industries, the Hellenic SteelAssociation, the AluminiumAssociationofGreeceandtheGreekIndustryofDetergentsandSoaps(SEVAS).We wouldalsoliketoacknowledgetheinputoftheGreekAssociationofBrandedProductsand Manufacturers(ESVEP),theInstituteofRetailConsumerGoods,Greece(IELKA),theTechnical Chamber of Greece (TEE), theAssociation of GreekTourism Enterprises (SETE), the Hellenic RetailandBusinessAssociation(SELPE),HellenicBookAssociation(ENELVI),theAssociationof International Freight Forwarders and Logistics Enterprises of Greece (SYNDDEL), the AssociationofPharmaceuticalCompaniesofNon-PrescriptionMedicines(EFEX),theHellenic Petroleum Marketing Companies Association (SEEPE), the Efficient Consumer Response Association (ECR), the Hellenic Association ofTravel andTourist Agencies (HATTA), the Hellenic Association of Advertising-Communication Agencies (EDEE), Small Enterprises’ Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (IME GSEVEE),theCentralMarketsandFisheryOrganization(OKAA),PiraeusPortAuthority,Greek MarinasAssociation, Hellenic ProfessionalYatch OwnersAssociation (EPEST), McKinsey & Company,FragiskosArmaosandNikosManias. Theopinionsexpressedinthereportdonotnecessarilyreflecttheviewsoftheabove- mentionedorganisationsorindividuals. OECDCOMPETITIONASSESSMENTREVIEWS:GREECE©OECD2014 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Competition Assessment Toolkit was developed by theWorking Party No.2 of the CompetitionCommitteewiththeinputofmembersofmanydelegationstotheOECD,both from member and non-member jurisdictions.The materials were drafted at the OECD Secretariat under the leadership of Sean F. Ennis, Senior Economist at the Competition Division.The Competition Assessment Project in Greece was initiated by Frank Maier- RigaudandFiorenzoBovenzi,bothformerlyoftheCompetitionDivision. The present report was edited by Ania Thiemann, Project Leader, and Federica Maiorano, Senior Economist, at the OECD Competition Division in the Directorate for FinancialandEnterpriseAffairs. The project team inAthens consisted of Federica Maiorano, Senior Economist,Ania Thiemann, Project Leader and Economist, Christos Genakos, Economist, Themis Eftychidou, Lawyer, Junior Competition Expert and Economist, all OECD Competition Division;andAnnaGatziou,Lawyer,EviKarkani,Lawyer,NikolaosLionis,Economist,Fotis Papadopoulos, Economist and Giannis Stefatos, Economist, under secondment from the Hellenic Competition Commission. Also participating were Svet Danchev and Nikos ParatsiokasfromtheFoundationforEconomicandIndustrialResearch(IOBE)whoworked fulltimewiththeprojectteamforsixmonths. The project team was led by Ania Thiemann and Federica Maiorano, with office support from ChristinaAnagnostopoulou, OECD Competition Division. Everybody on the team contributed to the report, with additional research carried out by Elias Demian, KonstantinosPeppas,SophiaStavraki,FotiniThomaidou,AggelosTsakanikasandMichail VassileiadisfromtheIOBE. Specialist advice on competition assessment was provided by; John Davies, Head of the Competition Division; Patricia Hériard-Dubreuil, Deputy Head of Division and Sean Ennis. Special thanks go to those who took the time to review the text and provided useful comments and feedback. The reviewers were Claude Giorno and Alain de Serres, the Economics Department; Peter Avery, Consumer Policy Division and Alain Dupeyras, TourismPolicyDivision,allOECD. ThereportwaseditedforpublicationbyBarbaraZatlokal,andpreparedforpublication by Ania Thiemann; Erica Agostinho, Communications Assistant; Edward Smiley, PublicationsOfficer;andKateLancaster,Editor. 8 OECDCOMPETITIONASSESSMENTREVIEWS:GREECE©OECD2014

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