IMPROVEMENTS OF THE COMPETITION PROTECTION POLICY IN SERBIA: SET OF RECOMMENDATIONS BASED ON EXPERIENCE OF SELECTED COUNTRIES

The aim of this paper is to offer recommendations for improving the system of competition protection in the Republic of Serbia, which are possible to implement in a relatively short time period. The implemen- tation basis for these recommendations already exists, so they are to be considered as the means to "subtly" adjust the competition policy alre- ady present in Serbia for six years. The recommendations are given ba- sed on the comparative analysis of the competition protection systems of the EU, USA, as well as some EU member countries which have a lon- ger tradition in dealing with competition protection policy compared to Serbia. The institutional core of the competition protection system is the Commission for competition protection, authorized to carry out the Law on competition protection and the Administrative court which carries out judicial control of the Commission's decisions. The paper pri- marily deals with the questions of better efficiency and effectiveness in the functioning of the mentioned core, but also with the core connec- tion with other system elements. Seven recommendations given in the paper include the issues of Commission independence empowerment, strengthening the professional Commission structure by increasing hu- man resources and reducing the number of processed subjects during the year. Besides these recommendations, there are those indicating the need to strengthen the professional capacities of the Administrati- ve court, since it turns out that the judicial lack of understanding of the economic essence of the Competition law can become a problem point in implementing the right decisions of the Commission. The recommen- dations also indicate the necessity of the Commission to communicate and cooperate more intensively with other governmental and non-go- vernmental bodies with significant influence on the competition condi- tions of the domestic market. Finally, the last recommendation concerns the importance of information and education of wider audience about the importance of competition protection.