In September 1986, Felipe González was launching his second absolute majority and a new Government. The legislature was starting again, with a predominant socialist bench, but from a very different starting point than in 1982.
Spain was on its way to completing a decade in democracy and the accession to the European Economic Community, a few months earlier, symbolized the triumph of the Transition. But entry into the current EU meant much more than participating in community institutions: it required gradually adapting Spanish administrative and economic structures to a shared legal framework.
This process was fraught with small milestones, including the adaptation of Spanish competition rules to those of the common market. Precisely this week marks 40 years since the publication in the BOE of the Royal Decree that articulated how community rules would be applied in Spain in this area.
Solchaga at the helm
The text, prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, headed by Carlos Solchaga, defined who would apply the community competition rules in national territory and how its authorities would collaborate with the European Commission.
The decree itself explained its rationale: the Accession Act of Spain and Portugal required the new member states to implement the necessary measures to comply with the community acquis. Among them were those related to Articles 85 and 86 of the then EEC Treaty, two of the pillars of community competition policy: the first pursued business agreements incompatible with competition and the second, abuses of dominant position.
It should be noted that the Royal Decree did not create those prohibitions, but what it did was articulate their implementation in Spain. Specifically, determining which national bodies would be competent and how they should relate to the Commission of the European Communities. Until then, the country was governed by Francoist regulations from the mid-sixties and principles of the seventies.
They come out to play
One of the main innovations was to attribute to the Competition Defense Tribunal the status of competent authority to apply in Spain Articles 85.1 and 86 of the Treaty, in addition to certain community provisions on transport.
The second protagonist was the General Directorate for Competition Defense. The decree designated it as the responsible body to develop the functions of collaboration between the Spanish Administration and the Commission. That collaboration, the regulation specified, had to be carried out in coordination with the corresponding sectoral departments of the Administration.
Brussels knocks on the door
The change was not limited to determining who resolved the files. The decree also established how the verifications requested by the European Commission should be carried out in Spain.
When Brussels required an action of this type, it would be officials or agents of the General Directorate for Competition Defense who would carry it out. The powers they could exercise were broad, from controlling the books and other professional documents of the companies to obtaining copies or extracts, requesting verbal explanations on-site, and accessing their premises, land, and means of transport.
Call to the Security Forces
The text also contemplated what would happen if a company refused to allow a community inspection. In that case, the General Directorate for Competition Defense had to provide the necessary assistance so that the agents of the Commission could fulfill their mission. The regulation even expressly anticipated the possibility of resorting to the assistance of the Security Forces and Bodies.
The opening to community control had, however, limits on the treatment of business information. The data obtained could only be used for the purpose for which they had been requested, and both the General Directorate and its officials were prohibited from disclosing them. The information was protected by professional secrecy.
In Spanish hands
This anniversary also has a significant coincidence. Forty years after Spain opened up to the community competition rules, the political head of that portfolio in the European Commission is a Spaniard, Teresa Ribera. The former Deputy Prime Minister has been since December 2024 the Executive Vice President of the Commission for a Clean, Just, and Competitive Transition and is responsible for competition policy.
Currently, its scope includes issues such as the control of business concentrations, antitrust practices, and cartels, at a time when Brussels is also seeking to adapt competition policy to objectives such as competitiveness, investment, decarbonization, and the ability of European companies to grow in global markets. Issues that in 1986 seemed very distant, but that now set the course of Brussels and do so with a Spanish accent.
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