ABSTRACT
Italy promises to be an instructive case for the examination of the impact of Europe, since its transport policy tradition differs substantially from the European Common Transport Policy. The liberalisation of road haulage presented a unique opportunity for Italy to reform the administration of the sector which, even according to reports of the Ministry of Transport, never achieved its major sectoral goals of balancing the modal split and preventing cut-throat competition among hauliers. The chapter shows that the development of regulation and fiscal instruments led to a continual increase in state intervention, with protectionist tendencies increasingly eclipsing market co-ordination within the road-haulage sector. The Italian railway reform project seems to have undergone the spontaneous convergence of national and European policy. In contrast to road haulage, the railway sector in Italy seems to be characterised by political reform rather than policy inertia.
