The breadth of the developments occurred in the last two years as regards the new approach towards the strengthening of competitiveness in the European Union and the relevance of competition rules is such that cannot be synthetized in a mere bird’s eye view as this one. Notwithstanding, the author considers useful to pinpoint some interesting developments, given their potential impact also in the tourism sector both from the perspectives of advocacy and enforcement of competition rules, as follows: Ursula Von der Leyen’s Political Guidelines for the European Commission’s Mandate 2024-20972 acknowledge the existence of “too many structural brakes on our [the European Union’s] competitiveness”, where notably “Our companies operate in a turbulent world, with more unfair competition, higher energy prices, skills and labour shortages and difficulties in accessing the capital they need”. And sets the goal of “a new approach to competition policy, better geared to our common goals and more supportive of companies scaling up in global markets - while always ensuring a level playing field”. Amongst other consequences, “This should be reflected in the way we assess mergers so that innovation and resilience are fully taken into account” . Following these guidelines, in January 2025 the European Commission (Commission) presented a Competitiveness Compass for the EU (European Union)73. This highlighted that Competition policy is also “an important lever to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. [...] More generally, the new approach to EU competition policy requires us not only to simplify and speed up enforcement, but also to strengthen and better target enforcement. It will ensure a coherent approach conducive to overall EU objectives, in particular to closing the innovation gap, addressing the need for efficient scale where relevant, and supporting the decarbonisation of EU industry”74. Moreover, “The enforcement of the Digital Markets Act will open up closed ecosystems and enable innovative businesses to propose new digital services to customers” 75. Sustainable investments are also defended in this context. 72 Available at https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/e6cd4328-673c-4e7a-8683-f63ffb2cf648_en. 73 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, from 29 January 2025, with reference COM(2025) 30 final. Available at https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/10017eb1-4722-4333-add2e0ed18105a34_en. 74 Page 6 of the Communication mentioned above in 3. 75 Page 7 of the Communication mentioned above in 3. The Digital Markets Act is Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828. It aims to ensure contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and regulates gatekeepers, which are large digital platforms that provide an important gateway between business users and consumers and whose position can grant them the power to create a bottleneck in the digital economy. 145 THE SWEET&SOUR TASTE OF TOURISM AND COMPETITION LAW INTERACTION
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