2024-05-13 08:56:35
I don’t know if we are a club or a peacock feather, but we, the CPC, play the role of a punching bag for the political forces. Some politicians, I am not mentioning names because we are in an election campaign, but I will tell them after the elections, for more than 6 years they have been exercising on the CPC.
Prof. Plamen Kirov, a member of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC), stated this in an interview with BNR.
“Something that shocked me, I have attended hearings in the economic committee in the National Assembly, is that the same people did not bother to read the Law on the Protection of Competition, the Law on Public Procurement and on Concessions. Especially the PPE! They don’t want to understand that the CPC does not set prices, it is not a price authority. Political talk regarding the CPC goes beyond the limits of decency, I understand them, they build their political activity by looking for a convenient target and using the CPC as a punching bag,” comments Prof. Kirov.
He shared that there may be cases in which the CPC was not right, they made a mistake, but in general the statistics show otherwise.
“In the public procurement sector for 2023, the CPC has created 1,191 files in 12 months. Note that 1,088 of them are under Public Procurement, 102 under PPC proceedings and one for concession. Of the PPC decisions, only 38 are attacked before the court. So 38%, and the remaining 60% are accepted as fair and lawful, and the acts of the Civil Service Act canceled by the Supreme Court are about 4%”, argued the professor.
On Sunday 150, he was asked about competition in hospitals and healthcare.
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“We are shifting the center of the problem. The Constitution talks about health care, health care, not the provision of healthy services, of course they are related to commercial activity. And here it is about protecting people’s health. Health cannot be a commodity “We must understand that ensuring health care, not services, is the task of Bulgarian society and politicians. Health care is not a commercial activity and should not be a service market,” explained Plamen Kirov.
Of the accepted fixed markup of bread he said:
“This problem is not new, the CPC dealt with it back in 2019 and came to a conclusion. What the National Assembly did was election campaigning. I emphasize that the low prices are the result of competition, not regulation. The prices of 3 types bread will be low, but other types of bread will be offered, the price of which will rise. It is interesting that other countries in Europe have applied restrictions on markups, but in a short period the effect was the opposite.”
According to him, the increase in the prices of essential foodstuffs – bread, is not due to reasons related to retail trade.
“They are completely different – inflationary processes that do not struggle with a fixed markup, processes with geopolitics, military conflicts, supplies, importing grain, flour from other markets, etc.,” explained the representative of the CPC.
Prof. Kirov reported that 2 years for a sector analysis seems like a long period, but such sector analyzes require the collection of a huge amount of information and analysis is not easy, this time frame is common in relation to oil.
“Actually, in 2023, 3 more proceedings were initiated, directed and with the subject of an investigation into a cartel and unjustified increase in the prices of eggs and dairy products, etc. At the moment, they are at the attention of the commission, referring to a cartel, and the proceedings are not finished, we hope to finish them. We are now at the information gathering level,” he explained.
And he explained that “the prices of food products are rising not only in Europe, but also in the whole world”:
“The reasons are not only related to trade, but to production. You see the EU policy in the field, the agricultural producers are in the corner, part of the land should not be cultivated but left fallow and at the same time an agreement is signed with the countries from Latin America. And the whole policy should promote production. If we don’t import food from outside, in 3 months we will import 70% of the food, thanks to a short-sighted policy in agriculture,” commented Prof. Plamen.
He announced that the decisions for telecoms have been published on the website of the CPC. There are also the reasons of 40-50 pages, with which the CPC examines the markets and the shares of the players.
“The CPC has issued a decision that is subject to judicial review. Currently, there are two pending proceedings in the Administrative Court – Sofia City, and they will conclude whether the court will confirm our decision or cancel it. We will wait for the court’s decision,” said Kirov.
And he believes that specific business interests are always hidden behind the defense and talking about the general interest.