OREANDA-NEWS. July 22, 2008. A regular antimonopoly enforcement meeting of the executive officers of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) and the "Promoting Competition" Non-Profit Partnership took place, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The participants discussed the Findings of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation "Issues of Administering the Antimonopoly Legislation for the Arbitration Courts", of 5th July 2008. Enforcement of Articles 11 and 12 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" was also reviewed at the meeting.

One of the main items of the agenda was the report of the Working Group on "block exemptions". Article 11 of the Federal Law "On Protection of Competition" forbids competition-restricting agreements of concerted actions of economic entities. Under Article 13 of the Law, the Government of the Russian Federation can determine conditions when agreements are allowed under general exemptions.

The Working Group of FAS Russia and the "Promoting Competition" Non-Profit Partnership have devised the main provisions of such a decree. Having discussed the report, it has been decided to approve it in principle and, upon a follow-up revision, present to the Government of the Russian Federation a draft Decree "On Approving Block Exemptions for the Agreements between Buyers and Sellers as well as Agreements on Joint Research Activities and Joint Use of Research and (or) Research-and-Technology Findings". The draft Decree will include detailed conditions for allowing the agreements during five years after this statutory act is approved.

FAS Russia also informed the members of the non-commercial partnership about the new Federal Law "Procedures for Making Foreign Investments to Economic Entities that Have Strategic Importance for National Defense and Security" and the new terms of reference of the Antimonopoly Service, related to the Law. In particular, being the federal executive body authorized to control foreign investments in the Russian Federation, FAS Russia is responsible for research and information support of the Government Commission for Control of Foreign Investments.

Namely, the antimonopoly authority processes petitions for preliminary approvals of the transactions covered by the Law "On the Foreign Investment Procedures…", prepares reports on petitions in accordance with the laws and presents them to the Government Commission for consideration and final decisions.

The Commission for Control of Foreign Investments has already been appointed by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation. Igor Artemiev, the Head of FAS Russia is appointed the Executive Secretary of the Commission. To exercise the new authority, the Antimonopoly Service has formed a new unit - the Department for Control over Foreign Investments, chaired by Svetlana Levchenko and supervised by Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of FAS Russia.