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European Policy Forum
125 Pall Mall,
London,
SW1Y 5EA
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 20 7839 7565
Fax: +44 20 7839 7339
Joining-up Europe’s Regulators
Significant policy discussions are now taking place in Europe over the joining up of national regulators in the energy, financial and telecoms sectors into networks, agencies or authorities.
I am delighted to make available to you our new study Joining-up Europe’s Regulators which brings together leading experts in this field to examine what is happening and how best regulatory cooperation in Europe should be developed.
The consequences in the three sectors are obviously of profound significance to economic regulators in the UK, to policymakers, parliamentarians and customers, and for the location of decision-making power and authority.
Another sector in which these issues have surfaced is in pharmaceuticals and our study features a detailed examination of the way in which European procedures have developed in that sector.
Joined up regulation is likely to emerge through more developed European regulatory networks or agencies. But there is a stark difference between two different choices of models.
One choice, as the study explains, is a standalone, controlling, European entity with the potential virtues of effective independence and an overall perspective of the European market, but the potential weakness of insufficient awareness of market specificities.
The alternative is a collection of national regulators. These may be individually subject to direction by national ministries with short-term interests not necessarily in line with EU framework objectives. They may be generally indifferent to development of European markets but with a fair degree of knowledge of local markets, loosely grouped into a committee equipped to issue non-binding guidelines.
The studies carefully examine the relationship between the European Commission and the networks and agencies. This delicate and sophisticated interaction, with the Member States closely in attendance, and the constraints of the jurisprudence of the European Court limiting options, is a fascinating area.
In addition to testing possibilities for the future development of European regulation, this volume of studies contains a wealth of detailed material which is invaluable for policymakers and market participants in the energy, financial services, pharmaceuticals and telecoms sectors.
We are enormously grateful to Sir John Mogg, the Chair of the European Regulators Group for Energy and Gas and Ofgem, to Professor Eilis Ferran and David Green for an expert examination of financial services regulation, to Dr Jürgen Feick for his expertise in pharmaceuticals and to Andy Tarrant in telecoms for their meticulous and detailed work. Their studies have produced state-of-the-art examinations of the way in which regulation is developing at European level in each of these sectors. We hope they will be of profound value to all those involved in the debates and discussions on the next steps in joining up European regulators.