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.