The ICN 2012 Advocacy Workshop, hosted by the Autorité de la concurrence in Paris on October 26-27, was a huge success. The workshop gathered more than 120 participants from 50 different jurisdictions.

For those unable to attend, the workshop addressed substantial policy issues – most notably regarding advocacy to government – with a plenary session on “Competition impact assessment of legislation”. The plenary session collected feedback from members in the perspective of a project proposed by Eduardo Perez Motta, Chair of the ICN, to create a work product to complement the OECD’s Competition Assessment Toolkit, as part of the third goal of the Chair’s Vision Statement on increasing the visibility of competition policy and principles.

Two Advocacy Working Group projects, on the Benefits of Competition and on Competition Culture, respectively led by the Portuguese Competition Authority and the Competition Commission of Mauritius, were also launched during the workshop, and there was agreement to advance the ongoing project on Working with Courts and Judges led by the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

Discussions on “Advocacy and institutional reform” and “The role of the ICN in competition advocacy” explored how the ICN can act as an advocate within the network – in support of its members, and outside the network, as a possible advocate for competition in the international arena. Further discussions were held on subjects of special interest to NGAs with a session on “Advocacy: the role of NGAs”, as well as younger and more mature agencies with sessions on “The ABCs of advocacy” and “Advocacy and economics”.

A summary of the workshop is forthcoming. In the meantime, Power Point presentations are posted on the workshop’s website, directly available in hyperlinks on the program.

For additional questions please email the workshop hosts, the French Autorité de la concurrence.