Karl Soukup

Director, DG Competition, Brussels

Karl Soukup works in the Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP) of the European Commission, which is in charge of competition policy in the European Union. He heads there since March 2024 a newly created Directorate in charge of implementing the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, which is applicable since 2023 and gave the Commission the power to examine distortive effects of subsidies granted by third countries on the internal market. He is currently also assuming the function of Acting Deputy Director-General for State aid, overseeing the overall work on State aid in DG COMP, a function he carried out already in 2021/22.

From 2013 to September 2024, he was heading a Directorate in charge of state aid control, covering areas like regional development, research, development and innovation, Important Projects of Common European Interest, climate and environment, fiscal aid (including the work on aggressive tax planning) and agriculture and fishery. He has been heavily involved in the DG’s response to the COVID-19 crisis as well as the crisis created by the Russian aggression against the Ukraine.

He has an economic background and joined the Commission in 1996, after a few years as Assistant Professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. He worked in DG COMP in various positions in the areas of state aid and merger control. Amongst others he was instrumental in building up and running the financial crisis task force, which was established late 2008 to scrutinise public support schemes established by Member States in response to the financial crisis as well as state aid measures and restructuring plans for individual banks. From 2001 to 2004 he was member of the private office of Commissioner Mario Monti, then responsible for competition policy, advising him in particular on state aid policy.