Brussels is the centre of European competition enforcement. Practitioners in the city have the benefit of dealing with one of the world's leading authorities - the European Commission's DG Comp - on a daily basis. In the past, Belgium's Competition Authority has suffered from comparison with its neighbour. This shouldn't be a surprise; it has fewer resources, less expertise and, most importantly, less experience in dealing with complex cases.

But in the past few years, solid leadership, coupled with ministerial backing and greater ambition, have seen the authority develop into a competent, if not exactly fierce, enforcement agency