With French pupils unable to sit final exams on time due to train strikes, Telefonica’s proposed purchase of E-Plus being cited as harmful to consumers and energy prices taking an increasing chunk out of families’ incomes, it's clear that Europe’s network industries have a profound impact on the daily lives of our 503 million citizens.
Yet, as these cases illustrate, despite being a leading world economy, the possibility for all consumers and users across the European Union to have access to quality services at affordable prices is still not yet the general rule today.
Part of the problem is how the network industries are regulated. The good news is that the incoming European commission has an ideal opportunity to be part of the solution: to take a step back and apply critical thinking to past regulatory decisions, and creative - but pragmatic - thinking to future regulation.
Liberalisation has been the blueprint for the future of the network services sector for the past 20 years. It has been pursued on the promise that competition would automatically bring about better and cheaper services.
"The incoming European commission has an ideal opportunity to be part of the solution: to take a step back and apply critical thinking to past regulatory decisions, and creative - but pragmatic - thinking to future regulation"
In many cases such as telecoms, the promise has been delivered. But in others, – such as transport and energy – too many European consumers still face a lack of choice and/or high prices.
The new commission would therefore be well advised to investigate, in the light of actual results, what liberalisation and the internal market concretely means for network industries and be prepared to rebalance their respective objectives.
The infrastructure that allows water, transport, energy and communications services to be delivered is - in some countries and some sectors – in urgent need of upgrading.
Last month, the International Energy Agency said Europe’s electricity infrastructure alone needs a $2.2 trillion investment by 2035 just to be kept operational.
How the EU regulates this sector will have a big influence in attracting investment. This should be at the top of the commission’s mind for every regulatory decision made about network services.
Time and resources can be saved by the commission if instead of just coming up with new rules it focuses on properly implementing and enforcing the rules already in place. For example: the 1998 telecom regulation package has, sixteen years later, still not been fully implemented.
A more operational – but still crucial – change is to review how and by whom network services rules are made. The growing convergence between network industry sectors needs more systematic cooperation between different parts of the commission - and even reorganisation of the relevant DGs.
Smart Grids, for example, requires both digital and energy policy decisions. This is not just an administrative issue but, more fundamentally, it influences the capability for the commission to propose and communicate policies that, from the beginning of their inception, are integrated, consistent, and understandable.
"A more operational – but still crucial – change is to review how and by whom network services rules are made. The growing convergence between network industry sectors needs more systematic cooperation between different parts of the commission - and even reorganisation of the relevant DGs"
There are many more opportunities to be seized upon that will improve the services that network industries deliver to citizens. And if there is any hesitation, I would urge the commission to remember that, in a period where disillusionment with the EU is strongly expressed at the polls, it is the tangible benefits of the Union that will help turn around that sentiment.
Is there anything more real than having an affordable and adequate water, electricity, rail transport and broadband supply?