TOURISM LAW AND COMPETITION – A PORTUGUESE PERSPECTIVE 431 support tourismsince the outbreakof theCOVID19pandemic.Notwithstanding and having a forward look, we highlight two recent initiatives by EU institutions already this year which reflect the continued essentiality of the Member States action and what is expected from them: • On 24 April 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on an “EU strategy for sustainable tourism” in the context of which it urged “EU countries to include them in their recovery plans and to consider temporarily reducing VAT on these services”. • The 27 May 2021 Council’s Conclusions already mentioned hereabove euphemistically refer to the main specificities of the sector and the needed actions to ensure a true recovery of the sector. In this way, the Council puts forward a range of targets in its 27 May Council’s Conclusions, such as “ENSURES that the EU identifies and makes smart use of existing funding opportunities under the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and the Next Generation EU, in order to support the short-, medium- and longterm recovery of the tourism ecosystem and to make it more resilient and support its green and digital transitions”28. C.2. Under Portuguese law According to its 2014 bylaws 29, the Portuguese Competition Authority (“CA”) is a single purpose administrative entity with administrative, financial and management autonomy. It is independent regarding its organic and functional structure, as well as its technical one. Its mission consists of ensuring the application of competition rules in the public, cooperative and private sectors of activity in compliance with the market economy principles and freedom of competition, taking into consideration the efficient functioning of the markets, the optimisation of resources and the interests of consumers. Moreover, the CA develops its mission in Portugal without prejudice to the competencies which are attributed to it by international law and particularly the ones resulting from the EU law. In this context, the CA has disciplinary, supervisory and regulatory powers30. Amongst these are the following: 28 Paragraph 12 of the 27 May Council’s Conclusions, mentioned in 10 above. 29 Especially articles 2 and 5 of the bylaws annexed to Decree-Law no. 125/2014, of 18 August. 30 Article 6 of the bylaws referred below in footnote 32.
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