Competition law foundations: an audio-style guide

If I were explaining Competition law foundations to a new colleague in Brussels, I would not begin with a definition. I would begin with the scene. This card sits in Ch.8 Competition Law. Its wider background is this: competition law protects market structure through prohibitions, enforcement and state aid control. The essential point is simple: Articles 101–109 TFEU, reinforced by Protocol No. 27 on the internal market and competition.

The reason this matters is that EU history is rarely a list of isolated facts. It is a chain of choices, compromises and institutional consequences. Here, the useful nuance is: Aims to keep the internal market open and undistorted. That sentence turns the card from a memory test into a piece of political and legal understanding.

A good EU official listens for the structure beneath the story. Who is acting? Which institution has the power? Which treaty, procedure or policy instrument gives the action its force? With an article, do not recite the number mechanically. Hear it as a legal doorway: it tells you who may act, by which procedure, and with what effect. That is also how EPSO distractors are built. They sound familiar, but one institutional detail is out of place.

Use Arts 101–109 TFEU as your bookmark. Then say the card aloud in one flowing sentence: Competition law foundations matters because Articles 101–109 TFEU, reinforced by Protocol No. 27 on the internal market and competition. If that sentence sounds natural, you are no longer memorising a flashcard. You are learning to explain the Union as a living system.