The electronic communications policy of the European Union

Abstract

This book has endeavoured to analyse how the European Union's Electronic Communications Policy has evolved over more than thirty years, since the first proposals were put forward in 1977 to the present time, when the second review launched in 2005 has been finalised. During the last three decades, electronic communications have become increasingly more important for the economic and social development of the European Union, which justifies and explains the enthusiasm with which the Community Institutions have set about developing this Policy. Leaving aside the shortcomings and inadequacies of the liberalisation process experienced in the European Union-e.g., the absence of a true Electronic Communications Policy of the European Union to provide rigour to what are now twenty-seven different national policies or the constant confrontation between Member states sovereignty and EU supranationality, among other deficiencies that the authors point out in their conclusions-the fact is that the constant evolution of the sector, in the wake of powerful technological and economic changes, greatly hampers-and maybe even calls into question-the achievement of the objectives that were set at the time and that the new Digital Agenda renews and expands today. These goals-among which, the creation of a single internal market, stimulating investment in infrastructure and increasing competition-are in a sense contradictory, which makes it difficult the design and implementation of appropriate regulatory policies in an environment that is also subject to constant change.