The Report of the Activities of the European Commission on the positive contribution made by Eu regulations to the process of opening up and liberalising the telecommunications markets in Europe can be downloaded from the website http://europa.eu.int/information_society/policy/ecomm/article_7/index_en.htm. The document emphasises that “regular economic analyses” (conducted both by Brussels and by the member states) of the competition on the market of electronic communications combined with a “meticulous” examination at the EU level of national bills in this field contribute significantly to a sound regulatory framework and liberalization. Fifteen sectors are taken into examination by the report: in particular, access to public telephone networks, local and international telephone services, and the market for the provision of Internet access and broadband multi-services. Despite that, the European Executive itself admits that “much still remains to be done”. It’s enough to think that, as of 30 September 2005, no less than 16 Eu countries still declared “the lack of effective competition” within at least one of the 18 electronic communications markets classified at the Eu level. The global calculation in the 25-member EU is even less rosy: less than 10% of the 450 European markets can legitimately be called “fully competitive”.
