How Europe Formulates Internet Policy

This article discusses the interplay of carrier and content regulatory layers in European internet law, how the 'Single Market' agenda informs and influences these layers and whether the proposed EU Connected Continent Regulation may solve some of the difficulties. The article starts with a brief overview of EU policy making in the area of telecommunications, moves on to explain the 'Single Market' background of EU internet regulation and looks at present telecommunications policy in its potential for the future. The main claim is that the origins of EU telecommunications policy can help understand and explain more general limitations of internet regulation and its more recent transformations. One of the main conclusions is that the 'Single Market' paradigm as understood in the 1990s or 2000s may not be best suited for the dynamic digital world of today.