Europe's Network Industries: Conflicting Priorities (Telecommunications). Monitoring European Deregulation 1

The regulation of 'network industries' has emerged as a key issue on the European policy agenda, yet there is little high-quality research capable of informing the European policy debate. Network industries pose important and difficult issues for policy-makers, in particular the complex relationship between competition and regulation. This Report is the first in a new series, Monitoring European Deregulation (MED), launched by CEPR and SNS in 1997. The MED Reports feature new, policy-oriented research on the liberalization of the European markets of the major 'network industries': telecommunications, energy, air transportation, rail, and water. Addressed to a wide audience of both academics and European decision-makers in the private-sector and policy communities, at both the national and EU level, the series will play an important role in informing the policy debate and influencing current thinking on these issues.