The objective of the paper is to analyse the process of reforms in the urban public transport which has been going on in some EU member states (Italy, Spain and Germany). How some countries are proceeding in transferring the sector competence from the central governments to the local authorities; how the direction, legislation and programming functions are separated from the management ones in transforming a monopolistic market into a competition-driven one, is going to be evaluated, considering the dispositions and guidelines issued by the European Union. The analysis shows that the legislative environment of the Union leaves ample space to discretion, thus encouraging different action, depending on the national peculiarities, and producing widely differing results. For the covering abstract see ITRD E128239.
Samenvatting