Since the beginning of the 1990s, Europe has been struggling to
establish a competitive as well as a fully integrated internal energy
market. Until the early 1990s, the European energy markets consisted of
national monopolies possessing vertically integrated structures. They
were also still nationally segregated. Since, the EU has made the
decision to open European energy markets to competition and subsequently
establish an internal energy market. The European energy markets are
currently controlled by a dual structure consisting of two different
regulatory frameworks: Competition Law and Sector-Specific Regulations.
The primary goal of these legal instruments is the establishment of an
internal energy market. This book aims at analysing the development of
the European energy markets and policies from the perspective of
competition law as well as sector-specific regulations and, hence,
identifying the problems regarding the introduction of competition into
the energy markets.