The competition legislation has entered an impasse, after relevant bills approved with great delay the Government have been blocked by Parliament, according to the latest quarterly Euromonitor report. The think-tanks Adept and Expert-Grup found that in quarter four of 2011 all the activity in the competition area practically came to a standstill. “One key weakness of the domestic business environment is the competition legislation or, should we say, its absence. Although in the last five years the necessity to develop a legal framework for this area which is essential for any investor, either local or foreign, has been constantly talked about, the steps taken to this end have been slow and often merely formal”, says the report. The report recommends the Government to make a thorough analysis of the European legislation and borrow the best practices when deciding on issues regulated by secondary legislation to the Law on State Aid and the Law on Competition. The Euromonitor also recommends the government to consider the opportunity of extending the legislation on state aid to cover all the sectors, including the agriculture sector, which is “an important yet vulnerable” part of the Moldovan economy. Also, the Government is advised to strengthen the capacity of the Competition Protection Agency; delaying these consolidation efforts as well as the training of other relevant actors, such as courts and regulatory authorities, could further slow down activity in the competition area. The quarterly analytical report Euromonitor is published by the Association for Participatory Democracy Adept and the Analysis Center Expert-Grup, with the financial support of Soros-Moldova Foundation.