First chapter of this thesis describes the formation of EU policy on energy and summarizes the current objectives, which should be followed by the European Union in the field of energy. There are also mentioned the main actors in the European energy market (i.e. markets with electricity and natural gas as the main focus of the thesis). In the second chapter, mergers and takeovers in general and then their control through the EU competition policy is described. Third, i.e. the last chapter is devoted to the possible consequences of mergers and takeovers (especially dominant position and its abuse). The whole chapter and thesis is closed by selected cases of control of mergers and takeovers in the electricity and gas markets.

The purpose of this study is to conceptualize the ideational influence of Ordoliberalism on EU Competition Law while addressing a problematic social issue that has been witnessing a surge in the number of cases, which is excessive price abuse under Article 102(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) within the spectrum of pharmaceutical sector. By utilizing Nedergaard (2020)’s analytic framework for Ordoliberalism’s operationalization, the study successfully proves the impacts of five characteristics of Ordoliberalism, including Politics by rules, Economic Constitution, Market Construction, Role of Consumers and Role of the states towards consumers, on the practices of EU Competition Law, using the empirical data collected from two excessive pricing examples: Aspen in Italy and Pfizer/Flynn in the United Kingdom. The study also highlights the unique features of the pharmaceutical market due to its significant impacts on public healthcare and medicine assessment. At the end of the study, some recommendations are provided for further investigations.

The focus of the dissertation is based on the previous research of a relatively new field of environmental governance posed by climate change policy. The implementation of the climate change policy in Europe is then a subject to the discussion over the consistency of that policy with one of the fundamental goals of European integration. That goal is building an internal market as well as ensuring fair competition in such a market. The interaction of these two areas is a key objective of this research work. Given the complexity of the topic, the dissertation, for sake of clarity, is defined more narrowly. On one hand, the thesis provides with an analysis of European climate policy and its main instruments for regulating carbon emissions in the European economy - the European Union emission trading system (EU ETS). On the other hand, the thesis also provides with a description of the European competition policy. The reason is, as mentioned above, that the competition policy is a fundamental policy that guarantees the consistency of the implementation of environmental policies with the building of the internal market. The author analysed in the thesis basic measures implemented within the framework of those with the aim to prove out whether both policies are in mutual accord and whether they do function under the real terms. Based on the results achieved, the author can make following conclusions: The EU ETS mechanism decided for the European Union proved out to be a cost-efficient choice of emission reduction, despite of some temporary weakness that it has. Also, it can be concluded, that the allocation method is the ultimate criterion that determines both the efficiency of the climate action in Europe as well as its compliance with the competition policy. Stemming from that conclusion, there has been some strong evidence given that grandfathering has not been always in line with the state aid rules existing now in the environment protection. Last but not least, the optional use of the Article 10c of the Directive 2003/87/EC seems to be, from what one can say now, fully in line with the state aid rules valid in the European Union. However, further research in this field might be of very use in the future.