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Parcu, Pier Luigi; Rossi, Maria Alessandra --- "State aid policy in the broadband sector: public announcements, investments and crowding out" [2020] ELECD 349; in Parcu, L. Pier; Monti, Giorgio; Botta, Marco (eds), "EU State Aid Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) 99

Book Title: EU State Aid Law

Editor(s): Parcu, L. Pier; Monti, Giorgio; Botta, Marco

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: State aid policy in the broadband sector: public announcements, investments and crowding out

Author(s): Parcu, Pier Luigi; Rossi, Maria Alessandra

Number of pages: 22

Abstract/Description:

In the past years, the telecommunications section has been characterized by an intensive debate on the role of State aid policy in relation to the deployment of Next Generation Networks (NGNs). The deployment of NGNs is in fact characterized by two conflicting objectives: on one hand, Member States have undertaken substantial public investment in recent years in order to promote the rollout of new and better performing infrastructures in EU Member States; on the other, such public intervention represents State aid subject to the Commission’s scrutiny. In this chapter, we discuss the interaction between public intervention in NGNs, effective State aid enforcement and private investment on the deployment of NGNs in the EU Member States. The Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) 2020 has indicated very ambitious objectives for the deployment of NGNs in Europe. The ambitious digital targets indicated in the DAE have promoted State intervention via different forms of State aids. The public investment often went beyond the objective of solving market failures, and thus implied a concrete risk of distorting competition and crowding out private investments.