The autonomy of regulatory bodies is not essential to guarantee competition in the different economic sectors, said Alonso Romero, a professor at the Tecnológico de Monterrey and a specialist in finance and energy markets.
In an interview, he explained that in the United States and in European countries, competition oversight and autonomy are not linked and regulatory bodies exercise their powers correctly.
What we have to ask ourselves is whether it is strictly necessary for there to be institutional autonomy for these functions to be carried out. I would say no.
he commented.
There are many countries, including the United States, where the president’s policy is followed; the same happens in Europe, where the commissions are not independent of the executive.
In Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and France, energy and competition regulators are state agencies. Even at state level, there are regulators that are not fully independent and do not function properly.
It is important that the State has tools to dictate economic policy, and I do not believe that this should be left out of the cycles of democratic elections, I believe that they should be subject to a long-term development policy.
the analyst said.
In contrast, Marcial Díaz, a consultant at Qua Energy, stressed that without autonomy, organizations dedicated to studying energy models in the world and improving the value offer in energy projects will be lost.
The House of Representatives’ Constitutional Affairs Committee approved last Friday the ruling that proposes eliminating and transferring to government agencies the functions of seven autonomous bodies, among which are the Federal Economic Competition Commission (Cofece); the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), as well as the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval) and the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT).
Although the functions would be absorbed by the Energy Secretariat, it has a partial vision, because it sees what the energy policy of the federal public administration is, but it sees it from the perspective of a national development plan, not from the market.
Diaz mentioned.
Particular functions
Cofece is responsible for monitoring, promoting and guaranteeing competition and free participation in different sectors, including the financial and pharmaceutical sectors.
The CRE regulates the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, as well as the processes for distributing natural gas, LP gas, petroleum products and petrochemicals, while the CNH regulates the exploration and extraction of hydrocarbons to promote investment.
Coneval (autonomous) measures poverty and evaluates social development programs and policies to improve their results, while IFT (autonomous) is the authority on economic competition in telecommunications and the regulator of the use, exploitation and development of the radio spectrum.