Economic activities of public bodies can pose a threat to fair and equal competition, however, municipalities in Europe do business, and often it is an inevitable solution. What regulation is needed in situation when market participants have substantially different backgrounds? What is the role of a competition authority? Is level playing field possible or even needed? What does it mean to consumers and to national economy?
| Moderator | |
 | Alexander Italianer European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition Alexander Italianer is Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition since 2010. He previously held the position of Deputy Secretary General of the European Commission, in charge of the Better Regulation Agenda, and was Chairman of the Impact Assessment Board. Prior to that, Dr Italianer worked in the cabinets of Presidents Barroso and Santer, and Commissioners Verheugen and Telička. He was also Director for International Economic and Financial Affairs between 2002 and 2004. |
| Panellists | |
 | Professor Alison Jones King’s College London Alison Jones is a Professor of Law at King’s College London and a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. Prior to joining King's in 1992, Alison read law at Girton College, Cambridge, worked at Slaughter & May and completed a BCL at Christ Church, Oxford. Since joining King’s she has taught Competition Law (EU, UK and US), Trusts, Property, and EU law, but she specialises in competition law. Alison is currently the LLM competition law pathway leader and is the Director of both the LLB Law with European Legal Studies and LLB Law with American Legal Studies programmes. As well as being co-author of an OUP text on EU Competition Law (5th edn, 2014), Alison regularly publishes articles in journals and contributes chapters to edited collections. Alison is particularly interested in comparative EU-US antitrust law and remedies (her first book was on Restitution and European Community Law). Alison has also participated in training programmes for competition agencies and judges and spoken at academic conferences across the globe. |
 | W. Michael Kramer, JD, CFE W. Michael Kramer is a US-based attorney and consultant who specializes in providing investigative, training and consulting services to international clients in the area of fraud and corruption. Mr. Kramer’s clients have included the World Bank, numerous United Nations Agencies, USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the European Investment Bank, the Asian Development Bank, numerous bilateral aid agencies and International NGOs, as well as eight of the ten largest multi-national corporations. He served as a senior adviser to the Independent Investigating Committee into the UN Oil for Food Program in Iraq (The Volcker Committee) and has worked on anti-corruption matters in almost seventy countries, including major investigations and projects in Eastern Europe, Africa, India and Asia. He is the author of numerous professional articles, training materials and a handbook on procurement fraud, was a contributor to and editor of the Fraud Examination Manual for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and authored the original Legal Section of the CFE Examination. He has taught well over one hundred training courses on five continents on the above topics. He is a co-founder of the International Anti-Corruption Resource Center; http:/www/iacrc.org, and authored the Guide to Combating Corruption and Fraud in Development Projects for that organization; http://guide.iacrc.org. He is widely recognized by his peers and professional organizations as one of the leading experts in the field. Before entering the private sector, Mr. Kramer was a Special Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, assigned to the investigation and trial of fraud and corruption cases throughout the United States. He received his BA degree in Philosophy from Princeton University and Juris Doctor Degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where he was an editor of the Law Journal. He is Certified Fraud Examiner and served as a member of the Board of Regents and faculty member for that organization. |
 | Dan Sjöblom The Swedish Competition Authority Dan Sjöblom, born 1964. He graduated as a lawyer from the University of Stockholm, Sweden in 1991. Upon leaving University, he worked at the national competition authority until 1996 when he joined the European Commission and held various posts in the Competition DG, most recently as Head of Merger control in the field of Energy. In March 2009 he was appointed Director General of the Swedish Competition Authority for a term of six years. |
 | Adam Jasser The Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Poland Adam Jasser served as Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister from March 2010 to March 2014. He was Secretary of Economic Council to the Prime Minister and oversaw the analytical and policy impact assessment department. He coordinated the government’s legislative agenda, with special focus on economic policy, pension reform, business environment and energy. He co-designed and supervised an overhaul of the government’s impact assessment process. Adam Jasser was Programme Director and Board Member of demosEuropa – Centre for European Strategy in 2009-2010, focusing on European economic and political issues. Before that, he spent almost 20 years at Reuters news agency, in roles stretching from translator and head of economic reporting in Warsaw, to bureau chief in Frankfurt and regional editor for central Europe, Balkans and Turkey. Adam Jasser graduated from the University of Warsaw with a Master’s degree in English Philology. He was appointed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk as President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection on March 20, 2014. |