Répartition et exercice des compétences entre l'union et les états membres en droit de la concurrence dans l'Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine (UEOMA)

UEMOA?s law provides for a number of rules on competition law aimed at setting up a common market in the Union. The principles of this market are set out in the UEMOA?s Treaty and further developed by secondary legislation. The UEMOA?s competition policy has been orientated towards an increasing centralization of competence within the Union by means of unified rules regarding agreement, abuse of dominant position and state aids. Accordingly, member states have been deprived of all their competence in these fields. When legislating in the field of competition law, member states must respect the scope of the Union?s exclusive competence. Centralisation is also to be seen with regard to proceedings, which are an exclusive competence of the Commission. A critical glance at the UEMOA?s competition policy, both in material and procedural terms, reveals that even if this referred policy is justified, given both the youth of the organisation and the lack of a « competition culture» on the part of member states, centralisation nevertheless endangers the effectiveness of community law. Whereas a certain degree of unified legislation may be justified in the framework of UEMOA, it remains doubtful whether an exclusive competence on the part of the Commission contributes to better achieving of the goals of community competition law. Accordingly, the distribution of competences between the Commission and the member states calls for a redefinition which should increase the involvement of member states as far as decision-making is concerned. This allocation should reconcile two needs which, at first sight, may appear contradictory: On the one hand, the need to provide the Commission with the necessary means to fulfil its tasks ; on the other hand, the need to achieve a satisfactory degree of effectiveness regarding the application of community competition law, which appears to be strongly related to a higher involvement of member states in decision-making. In this connection, a proposal according to which member states should be allocated a number of competences which would coexist together with the competence acknowledged to the Commission is put forward.