The assessment: European networks - Competition, interconnection, and regulation

Recent events, such as the California energy crisis, the failures of the UK 's railways, and the consequences of the third-generation (3G) mobile licen ce auctions, have called into question the European reliance on a strategy of network industry, liberalization. Substantial concentration in energy an d telecoms markets has also raised the issue of the consistency of competit ion policy with the creation of internal energy and communications markets. The paper considers the multiple market failures in these industries, and the problems raised by a series of national policy approaches which fail fu lly to reflect the economies of scale and scope and the European-level publ ic goods. Security, of supply in energy, the roll-out of broadband, and the gains for an overarching approach to climate change require a more Europea n focus. This in turn will require institutional reform at the European lev el. Failure to address this Europe-wide agenda will leave Europe behind the USA.