Spain: Congress receives plan to split up CNMC

Members of Spain’s Congress representing the Ciudadanos party, part of the ruling coalition, have presented the Legislature with a proposal urging for the dissolution of the country’s National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), the unified competition and sector regulator. The proposal instead would see the agency split into two independent organisms.

The CNMC would give way to two new entities: one named the Independent Authority for Market Regulation (AIReM) and the other the Independent Authority for the Defense of Competition (AIDeCO). The split would “follow the model used by all the countries around us”, as stated by the plan being now reviewed by the Economy and Competition Commission of Spain’s congress.

The ‘Orange Party’ has said its proposal for a new setup to the country’s regulators would help these agencies claw back some of the functions now assigned to several ministries and General Directorates after the CNMC was created in 2013. The party has often criticized the reform, accusing it of having been “performed with no consensus, drawing criticism from experts and international organizations, including the EU.”

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