Consistency is a legal requirement that is imposed by the Court of Justice on national claims to an objective justification of barriers to free movement that are based on public policy. As this requirement is seemingly used more frequently, it may be developing into a principle of EU law as...

The Netherlands is an early mover in healthcare liberalisation. It has a dual policy towards competition enforcement in the sector: not only the general competition rules (the prohibitions on cartels and the abuse of dominance, and merger control) but also rules of sector specific competition...

This chapter aims to analysis the new dynamics at work in EU energy regulation. Since the publication of the European Commission’s ‘Sector Inquiry Report’ in January 2007, European energy companies have felt the cold wind of competition law - many for the first time. In addition, national...

This paper aims, first, to chart the establishment case law of the European court and its impact on the “supply side” of healthcare provision. This shows that the development of this line of case law is slow and piecemeal: although on the one hand non-discriminatory rules are now caught by...

Economic regulation by independent regulatory authorities is justified in a legal sense by theories based on delegation, (partial) ministerial responsibility and judicial review, or more recently on regulatory contracts and stakeholder representation. While none of these models is fully...

Investments in energy infrastructure are one of the key energy policy priorities of the European Union. However, due to inherent high costs, these investments cannot be made without the Member States' support, notably in the form of State aid. This implies notifying the State aid to the European...

In its BUPA Case of February 2008 the Court of First Instance set a new standard for assessing whether public service compensation constitutes a state aid and/or is covered by the exception for services of general economic interest. At issue was risk equalisation between providers of private...

This paper discusses what institutional model is best able to address identified deficiencies in enforcement of the Electronic Communications Framework, ie lack of consistency and independence of NRAs. An examination of the three paradigm models otherwise available in EC law reveals that the...

This paper seeks to assess exactly where and how the network neutrality discussion taking place in the United States is relevant in the EU context, and thus where Europeans should be concerned. Secondly, where there is a concern, it looks to EC law to ascertain whether it already provides a...

The reform of bank supervision represents one of the great institutional challenges for the European Union. The recent pattern of cross-border failures in supervision reflects the extent to which a better functioning system of supervision is critical for the safe operation of the banking system...