Streamlining NCA independence in reforming Regulation 1/2003: time to take incongruent accountability realities (more) seriously?

This presentation analyses argues that the Commission’s reform suggestions aimed at streamlining NCAs into independent administrative agencies appear to neglect this variety of accountability mechanisms underlying current NCA institutional organisation and functioning. Given that those mechanisms each harbour incongruent expectations regarding the organisation and functioning of independent NCAs, failure to acknowledge such incongruence may in practice lead to less effective competition law enforcement. Its purpose is therefore to uncover the different NCA independence perspectives underlying those accountability mechanisms and to look for legally sound ways to make them converge when designing or upgrading NCA independence in the context of the Regulation 1/2003 reform.