It also sends an important signal to companies: if European consumers are affected by a cartel, the Commission will investigate it even if the anticompetitive contacts took place outside Europe".

Antitrust: Commission fines rechargeable battery producers €166 million in cartel settlement // Brussels, 12 December 2016

On February 13, 2012, an umbrella agreement was signed with ISI. The umbrella agreement is a long-term strategic sourcing arrangement that defines the working relationship and administrative arrangements under which the government will negotiate fair and reasonable individual shipbuilding contracts.

‘leniency programme’ means a programme concerning the application of Article 101 TFEU or a corresponding provision under national law on the basis of which a participant in a secret cartel, independently of the other undertakings involved in the cartel, cooperates with an investigation of the competition authority, by voluntarily providing presentations regarding that participant's knowledge of, and role in, the cartel in return for which that participant receives, by decision or by a discontinuation of proceedings, immunity from, or a reduction in, fines for its involvement in the cartel.

I ask the minister, who is constantly taking cover behind the framework agreement, whether he recognizes that the 1987 agreement signed by Robert Bourassa and Jacques Chirac, that is between Quebec and France, made no reference to the framework agreement of the time but was nevertheless approved by the federal government.

As well, senior justice department officials participate in a full review of framework agreements, agreements in principle and final agreements as part of the cabinet approval process.