trends in EU law in the last ten to fifteen years, as regards the regulation of network industries and of services of general … (iii) between regulation and competition law. At the same time, the separation between the regulatory authority and the …

competition is likely to develop on its own, or whether specific access regulation is necessary or desirable in attaining this end … that specific mandatory access regulation, on top of generic non-discrimination principles found in competition law and … strengthened if necessary in sector-specific regulation, is not needed to facilitate competition and may be counterproductive …

based on a study of energy, electronic communications and rail regulation in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and … the success of regulation. Other measures can be taken to increase the quality of NRA decisions ex ante, so as to reduce … the need for review and thereby procure even greater improvements in the effectiveness of regulation …