OECD competition assessment reviews. Greece.

391 Pages·2014·3.117 MB·English

by  OECD

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
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Consult this publication on line at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264206090-en. E
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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.
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©OECD2014
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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