Stefaan Raes

President of the Competition CouncilStefaan Raes is the president of the Belgian Competition Council. Under current law, the Competition Council conducts investigations and renders decisions in matters of public enforcement of the prohibition of restrictive practices, both under national and European law, and exercises merger control. Internally, the Competition Council maintains a strict division between investigation, by the College of Competition Prosecutors (assisted by the Directorate-General for Competition), and decision making, by the Chambers of Councillors. Over the past nine years, he has presided in numerous cases as president of the Chamber or of the Council in interim measures.His mandate as president came to an end on 28 February 2013 after a six-year period. He continues to exercise his mandate as president of the Competition Council until the new Belgian Competition Authority will become operational.Stefaan Raes is a lawyer, with a Master of Laws degree from the University of Chicago Law School (1981). He is on leave of absence as a judge in the court of appeal in Brussels where he sat in cases on appeal against decisions by the Belgian Competition Council, and in other complex cases of economic law (1998–2004). Before that, he was a judge at the Court of First Instance in Brussels, a court of general jurisdiction (1994–1998) and a lawyer at the private bar, specialising in complex litigations in the field of economic law. He has also worked at the University of Leuven (Belgium), in the area of civil procedure, in which he has published extensively.