Functional separation in Europe: the Swedish model

Access problems in Sweden have led the Swedish government to propose a bill of functional separation well ahead of the parallel process in the European Union. The proposed bill is a framework for imposing functional separation on an operator and does not answer, although implies affirmatively, whether functional separation actually should be imposed in Sweden. A related question is if functional separation could lead to a reduction in and help the removal of sector regulation. Structural measures have been used in general competition law to improve competitive conditions and experience can be drawn from this. Copyright 2008 Ola Bergstrm. No part of this article may be reproduced by any means without the written consent of the publisher.