Publisher's Synopsis
How does the European Common Transport Policy affect Italian transport reforms? In pursuing this question, the author examines how European integration impacts on the EU member states by using the Italian transport system as a particularly fascinating case study: Italy is under considerable pressure due to European liberalization, yet the impact of EU policy so far has been negligible. The complexities become even more apparent when two sectors of Italian transport are compared ? road haulage and railways. Whereas the road haulage sector has a strongly protectionist policy, the railways have gradually moved towards liberalization. These differences cannot be accounted for by the development of the European Transport Policy since European road haulage policy is much more developed than railway policy. - - Using two rival explanatory models ? the functional model assuming Europeanisation to be a process of coercion and the institutional model which views it as a process of institutional mediation ? this volume critically analyzes these two Italian transport sectors and their positions within the Europeanization process.
