The United Kingdom

The influence of EU law on the United Kingdom was different from that in France and Greece. The United Kingdom had been at the forefront of the privatization revolution, and the British regulators had engaged in public consultations before the advent of the EU participatory mandates. However, this chapter puts forward a narrative that spans the last two centuries and demonstrates that EU law did indeed lead to consequential changes in institutional structures and practices in the United Kingdom. Public participation in administrative policymaking had been inconsistent with the prevailing perception of the British state in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The New Right and New Labour governments introduced important regulatory reforms but it was EU mandates that pushed significantly in the direction of formalized and institutionalized open public participation, adding impetus to and consolidating previous domestic initiatives. This chapter concludes by looking beyond the telecommunications sector and beyond national borders.