"Internet @ Europe: Overcoming institutional fragmentation and policy failure" 

Summary by EurActiv.com

In an article entitled "Internet @ Europe: Overcoming institutional fragmentation and policy failure" (European Integration Online Papers, 25 June 2001), Raymund Werle addresses changes in EU policy making and links this to the development of the internet compared to the US.

Werle states that there are four obstacles to the diffusion of internet in Europe:

• no lack of European inventiveness (co-existence of several different incompatible protocols)
• telecommunications monopolies
• failed standards policy
• fragmented industrial policy

Werle concludes that telecoms liberalisation in the EU and the emergence of market competition in this industry coincided with a new internet policy. However, given the technological and organisational effects, the competitive disadvantage of European businesses in the area of computer networks and network service will not be overcome in the near future. He also concludes there is a need to involve internet users in order to exploit the potential of this network.

Dr Raymund Werle

To read the full article, see

"Internet @ Europe: Overcoming institutional fragmentation and policy failure"