Anglais

A version of this article was published in the European Voice on April 12, 2007. Protectionism is in the headlines anew with the calls for the erection of trade barriers by some Democrats in the U.S. Congress and the support lent by Ségolène Royal and Nicolas Sarkozy – during the last presidential election in France – to an increased tariff barrier at the European level.

Paris, May 10, 2007 – Anti-trust bodies in different countries – like the DG Comp of the European Commission – impose fines or regularly penalise successful companies holding significant market shares in the name of an “abuse of dominant position.” One of the biggest recent anti-trust cases certainly is the EC’s saga against Microsoft dating back originally to 2004. Brussels has advanced, 3 years later, to a new stage in…

Article published in the National Post (Canada) on April 11, 2007. Sales of Vista, Microsoft's new operating system, appear to be exceeding forecasts. Meanwhile, Brussels is ramping up its test of strength with the software giant.

A version of this article was published in the EU Reporter, February/March 2007, p. 21 under the title « Talking shop ». During the ‘90s, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, England, Austria and Japan have liberalized their shop opening hours. The debate rages over the same issue nowadays in the city of Geneva, France and Quebec.

A version of this article was published in the Wall Street Journal on March 1st, 2007. The world’s No. 1 chipmaker, Intel, has been the target of a series of antitrust probes and lawsuits around the globe. Attempts to thwart them amount to interfering with, and detracting to, the ways through which firms strive to provide the best possible value to consumers.

Paris, 9 March 2007 – While the issue of the future of the health system is conspicuous by its absence during the presidential campaign and that a showdown is pitting unions of general practitioners against public health insurance over tariffs, time has come to rethink seriously health cost containment policies in France, according to a new study released by the Institut économique Molinari. “We must yield to evidence. Whereas letting…

Article published by the Financial Times on February 23, 2007, p. 13. The European Commission seems to recognise no limits in its drive to impose tax harmonisation across Europe. Having issued a sanction against Luxembourg last July for its preferential tax regime pertaining to holding companies, Brussels is now trying to put pressure on countries even outside the EU by targeting Swiss cantonal tax competition and their tax breaks and…

Article published in the EU Reporter (January-February2007, p. 30). In their endeavor to cut back on costs, public health systems throughout Europe resort more and more to drug delisting. Beyond the fact that they may prove to be inefficient, these measures also reflect an alarming trend towards bureaucratization of healthcare by these monopolistic schemes. France provides a fitting example of this trend.

9 January 2007 – Since 1945-46, the French system of Social Security has been imposing a mandatory health insurance and thus has a captive clientele – as the insured are compelled to finance it. This system has been, and is still, justified in a great measure in the opinion of the general public on grounds that it allegedly leads the French people to become equal in health and provides financing…

December 11, 2006 – Doctors, dentists, pharmacists and other health care workers in Germany have been strongly protesting against the new cost containment health care reform. « This reform will simply lead the healthcare system into the cul-de-sac of centralized bureaucracy », according to their last joint statement during the national strike on December, 4, 2006. “The main effects of reference pricing are very similar: it ends up with a bureaucratization of…