Abstract

The liberalisation process of the electric markets within the European Union has not been able to produce satisfactory results yet, in particular from a competition prospective. Besides the typical rigidities of electricity sector (network constraints, return to scale, barriers to entry) the European liberalisation policy was mainly based on demand side, that is, on an increasing number of customers eligible to choose the supplier, but very low attention was paid on supply side measures to promote competition. Looking at main practices of energy and other sectors where both ex ante and ex post regulatory framework are present we suggest to reform the European regulatory framework in order to achieve a more effective measure to enhance market forces. The main proposal of this paper concerns a better integration among Antitrust powers and sector regulatory powers to develop competition. This is a crucial issues in a sector where traditional economic tools to detect dominant positions and related "abuses" seems to be not enough effective.