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The book explores the many legal and economic challenges emerging from the liberalization process engaged by the European Community with respect to state monopolies. It is divided into three parts. Taking a sectoral approach, the first part is devoted to expert analyses of the liberalization measures adopted by the Community in the areas of telecommunications, postal services, energy and air and rail transport. The objective is to provide a detailed and up-to-date review of the most significant developments that have taken place in these key industry sectors. The second part deals with more conceptual issues, such as the impact of the liberalization process on consumer protection and public service obligations. It also analyzes the main issues emerging from the creation of `strategic alliances' in the telecommunications and aviation sectors. The third part takes a comparative and international law perspective. It examines the extent to which monopolies have been opened to competition in the United States and the lessons which may be drawn from the American experience. It also discusses the liberalization measures negotiated in the framework of the World Trade Organization, with a special reference to the agreement recently concluded in the area of telecommunications. The papers written in the book are by leading experts on state monopolies, and take a pluridisciplinary approach covering not only legal but also economic and political science issues.
Among the critical matters discussed are the following: terminal dues for international mail; remail provisions; the UPU and WTO constraints on the European postal market; EU Commission decisions and ECJ case law interpreting the postal directive; the effects of EC Treaty Articles 81 and 82 and the Merger Control Regulation; abuse of market power, especially by incumbent public postal operators; the "essential facilities" doctrine; and funding of universal service obligations. In addition, there are specific country reports from five EU Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom) and Norway, bearing witness to the diversity of means adopted to implement the postal directive. Business persons and their counsel, regulatory officials, practitioners, and academics interested in the creation of an EU-wide postal market-as well as in the ongoing reliability and improvement of postal service - should find this text valuable.
In this important book, notable European experts in the energy field provide valuable perspectives on the principal issues raised by the liberalisation of the electricity and natural gas markets in the EU. Lawyers, business people, regulators, and policymakers who deal with matters and issues in the energy, natural resources, and environmental fields will find the details and insights presented here of great value.
Competition law in the EU includes a wide range of topics and has developed into a very comprehensive area of regulation. This book covers the broader perspective of competition law, giving an overview of a very complex domain of EU law. Through all relevant sources of primary and secondary EU law the book presents the intricacies of the present competition framework for businesses and public entities. It draws the lines between the different areas, and between competition law and the internal market project. The book covers all aspects of traditional EU competition law, as well as issues not formally regulated in the TFEU section on competition rules – the competition issues of the liberalised sectors and public procurement. Among the matters covered are the following: • the substantive rules on Articles 101 and 102 TFEU; • the enforcement rules of these provisions; • merger control; • the liberalised sectors, with focus on energy, transport, postal services and telecommunication; • state aid; • public undertakings; and • public procurement. With its enhanced view of EU competition policy, regulation, and enforcement, and its emphasis on specific industry sectors, this book offers an unusually thorough view of aspects of competition law which play an essential role in regulating the conduct of undertakings and public authorities in the market. It will be of special value to any lawyer, policymaker, or scholar active in European competition law.
Using numerous practical examples,this book examines the evolution of EC telecommunications law following the achievement of liberalisation, the main policy goal of the 1990s. After reviewing the development of regulation in the run-up to liberalisation, the author identifies the methods used to direct the liberalisation process and tests their validity in the post-liberalisation context. A critical analysis is made of the claim that competition law will offer sufficient means to regulate the sector in the future. Particular emphasis is given to the way in which EC Competition Law changed in the 1990s using the essential facilities doctrine, an expansive non-discrimination principle and the policing of cross-subsidisation to tackle what were then thought of as regulatory matters. Also examined within the work is the procedural and institutional interplay between competition law and telecommunications regulation. In conclusion, Larouche explores the limits of competition law and puts forward a long-term case for sector-specific regulation, with a precise mandate to ensure that the telecommunications sector as a whole fulfils its role as a foundation for economic and social activity.
An examination of the legal framework of the EU internal market as established in the case law of the European Court of Justice, discussing in particular EC competition law, the free movement of goods, services, persons and capital and the evolution of the interpretation of the provisions. The 'State' has been retreating from direct intervention in economic life as more goods and services, the provision of which was once thought to be a 'public' responsibility, are delivered through market mechanisms. Given the need for consistent application of EC law in the internal market, a common core conception of public authority, shielded from the discipline of EC competition law, is needed. The resulting realignment of public and private functions and responsibilities is not a linear and coherent process, especially in light of the changing nature of the European legal integration project and the progressive incorporation of non-economic values in the Treaties.
As economic competition is introduced into areas formerly served by public sector monopolies, to what extent do governments lose discretion over their use of the public sector? States of Liberalization examines the impact of the European Union's rigorous single-market competition policy on the abilities of Western European governments to use the public sector to achieve political objectives. Examining several politically contentious sectors, including government purchasing of goods and services, postal services, and public sector financial institutions, Mitchell P. Smith explores and explains the scope and the limits of this transformation. While European economic integration and the application of European Community competition policy have substantially infused competition into public services, the process has been more modest, and more deliberate, than a simple reading of Europe's potent market-making mechanisms would predict.
European private international law, as it stands in the Rome I, II, and III Regulations and the recent Succession Regulation, presents manifold risks of diverging judgments despite seemingly harmonised conflict of law rules. There is now a real danger, in light of the rapid increase in the number of legal instruments of the European Union on conflict of laws, that European private international law will become incoherent. This collection of essays by twenty noted scholars in the field sheds clear light on the pivotal issues of whether a set of overarching rules (a 'general part') is required, whether an EU regulation is the adequate legal instrument for such a purpose, which general questions such an instrument should address, and what solutions such an instrument should provide. In analysing the possible emergence of general principles in European private international law over the past years, the contributors discuss such issues and factors as the following: – the relationship between conflict of laws and recognition; - the room for party autonomy; - the concept of habitual residence; - adaptation when interplay between different laws leads to deadlock; - public policy exceptions; - the desirability of a general escape clause; - the classic topics of characterisation, incidental question, and renvoi; and - right to appeal in case of errors in the application of foreign law. Practitioners dealing with these notoriously difficult cases will welcome this in-depth treatment of the issues, as will interested policymakers throughout the EU Member States and at the EU level itself. Scholars will discover an incomparable comparative analysis leading to expert recommendations in European private international law, opening the way to an effective European framework in this area.
This text provides clear answers to the major questions concerning the modernization of EC antitrust enforcement such as: should a notification system be maintained, or should the antitrust rules be enforced exclusively through deterrence?; and at what levels should fines be set?
Recent constitutional thinking has directed its attention to the profound impact of ‘soft’ norms on the way legislation is made. This book identifies the European Union’s impact assessment regime as a source of these norms. In 2002 the European Commission – later followed by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers – committed to performing rigorous assessment of the economic, social and environmental impacts of policy options before adopting (legislative) proposals. Applying a ‘constitutional lens’ to this ‘regulatory’ topic, Anne Meuwese examines both the details and the framework of IA in EU lawmaking to date, drawing attention to its strengths, its contradictions, and its power to enhance the deliberative quality of legislative debates. Integrating the perspectives of political scientists and economists with the concerns of legal scholars and practitioners, Dr Meuwese describes and interrelates such aspects of the subject as the following: the potential role of impact assessment as a catalyst of legal principles, by emphasising or overriding norms that govern both the procedural and the substantive aspects of the EU legislative process; the ‘constitutional tasks’ of impact assessment as applied to European legislative proposals, especially relating to subsidiarity, proportionality, and the precautionary principle; the formal and informal extension of the scope of impact assessment beyond the co-decision procedure; the question whether impact assessment crosses the line between informing the legislator and fettering legislative discretion. In the course of her analysis Dr Meuwese develops models for possible usages of IA in EU lawmaking, analyses the implementation of impact assessment processes in the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council as well as the roles of relevant ‘co-actors’, and offers results of empirical research in the forms of a survey of EU legislative practice and in-depth case studies of four EU legislative dossiers.