How 'Europeanized' are the European Electricity Industries? A Cross-Country Analysis of Markets and Policies

This paper will show whether and to what extent it is possible to identify an impact of the European Commission (EC) on the Members States (MS) electricity policies and markets, in terms of convergence and integration among them. Mainstream recognizes a quixotic situation, which leads not to a convergence, but a convergence towards clusters of MS. In order to identify these clusters, a cluster analysis has been applied to a dataset, including country-specific data on electricity as of 2005. The final stable clusters do confirm the existence of three main groups, recalling a frequent taxonomy in the literature (Borzel, 2005), plus a fourth group including only Cyprus and Malta, whose dimensions and geographical aspects determine their similar results. It could be concluded that the EC has not (yet) enough strength to influence MS: the process of integration among markets will probably follow easily an already integrated industry.