Le funzioni dell’antitrust (alla prova di resistenza dell’Unione europea)

The current condition of “polycrisis”, exacerbated by recent intensifications in global trade tensions, underscores the necessity of fostering an increasingly robust strategic autonomy within the European Union. This objective should be reflected also through the concrete establishment of a genuine common industrial policy. Nonetheless, the realization of such a policy proves difficult if it continues to rely exclusively upon the limited legal foundation provided by Article 173 TFEU. Within this context, EU competition policy may perform a crucial function, particularly insofar as it is reoriented to support the objectives of industrial policy. This would require moving beyond a strictly economic approach to the antitrust law and instead embracing one that, as exemplified by the implementation of the Green Deal, seeks to balance the objective of market efficiency with the pursuit of other fundamental public interests. Accordingly, the purpose of the present contribution is to explore the potential role of EU competition law as an instrument for advancing broader objectives of European industrial policy. This entails a framework wherein antitrust rules are interpreted in a manner that is coherently integrated with the Union’s wider policy agenda.