ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of the European Union (EU) in coordinating a joint European regulatory response to the global pressures for liberalization in the telecoms and broadcasting sectors. The theoretical framework for this chapter draws on two concepts and two complementary sets of literature: those concerning regulatory competition and policy transfer, respectively. Although there has been considerable theorizing about the two concepts and their relevance to both comparative and EU policy analysis, with a few important exceptions (see below), this has produced relatively little detailed empirical investigation. The article seeks to help remedy this state of affairs, drawing on the findings of two recently concluded research projects.1 It is herein contended that globalization pressures of an economic and technological kind have stimulated the dynamics of regulatory competition in the ‘‘communication’’ sectors, which has contributed to a paradigmatic change in regulatory policies for both broadcasting and telecommunications. EU supranational institutional actors (the agents) have employed the powers delegated to them by the member states (the principals) to steer a process of regulatory reform to achieve a harmonized European response to the globalization pressures (Thatcher, 2001). In this, the European Commission has responded in character, both as a ‘‘purposeful opportunist’’ seeking to expand its competence (Cram, 1997) and as a ‘‘policy entrepreneur’’ (Radaelli, 2000) coordinating Europe-wide policy learning and policy transfer in various forms, both coercive and voluntary. However, to the extent that positive
integration, requiring intergovernmental agreement in the Council of Ministers (CoM), is more difficult to achieve than the negative integration prescribed by the EU treaties, by European Court of Justice (ECJ) court rulings and by EC competition policy, there has remained considerable scope for regulatory reforms tailored to national regulatory styles and preferences. The chapter shows that regulatory harmonization has proceeded considerably further in the ‘‘technocratic’’ sector of telecommunications than in the much more ‘‘politically sensitive’’ sector of broadcasting, where the promotion of sociocultural goals has been a factor for continuing national divergence. At the same time, in broadcasting, the EU has, thus far at least, helped to provide some, albeit distinctly limited, cultural policy protection against globalization a` l’Hollywood. The cross-national element of the analysis is limited to the cases of France, Germany, and the UK.
