ABSTRACT
Although public-private partnerships have grown in number and importance among the member states of the European Union (EU) and although the topic has received the attention of the EU, there is still a lot of confusion about how to actually deal with this phenomena. Until recently EU policies were strongly focused on the promotion of competition in European markets including separating production from policy, a practice we have called untwining. Publicprivate partnerships, which are in fact a result of the strategy to entwine privateproduction companies and public-policy agencies, do not fit very well under this predominant policy.
