ABSTRACT
The European Union creates optimal conditions for policy ideas to travel.
Dynamic interaction between the EU and its member states draws national
actors into a common policy milieu that transcends territoriality and ren-
ders domestic policy systems permeable to external influence. Research has
been slow, however, to exploit the concepts of policy transfer to cast new
light on the exchange of ideas, policy instruments and policy models across
the EU. Combining a policy transfer approach with new institutionalist
method, this book suggests an analytical framework for investigating how policy transfer may occur in the EU, and the ways in which EU institutions
impact upon the transfer process. It does so through case studies in utilities
regulation, a relatively new European policy area in which we might expect
to find the diffusion of innovation through EU institutions.
