"On the same 'wave length'?: Telecommunications reform in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain"

The Southern-tier states of the European Union (Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) share two interesting political motivations for telecommunications reform. First, privatization is perceived by national leaders not as a tool for restructuring but as a tool to pursue other regional objectives, such as the use of receipts from telecommunications privatization to reduce national deficits and public debt to meet the convergence criteria for full participation in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and future development of the European Union (EU). Second, the introduction of competition in telecommunications networks and services is not strictly perceived as a tool to accrue the economic benefits associated with liberalization, but a trade-off national leaders face if the European Commission is to allow national telecommunications organizations to participate in international telecommunications alliances. Telecommunications reform can be pursued for economic motivations, yet these examples illustrate that political motivations exist in the Southern-tier states for policy adjustment in the sector