Telecommunications reforms in Portugal and the European Union

The social democrats, in office from 1985 to 1995, have introduced significant reforms in the Portuguese telecommunications sector. The terminal equipment and advanced services were liberalized; the separation of the regulatory and operational functions became effective; the telecommunications sector underwent a major restructuring which involved the merger of the three main public telecommunications operators and, finally, the main operator, Portugal Telecom (PT), was partly privatized. The European Union (EU) has certainly played a part in the national telecommunications reform but this article argues that, although most of the policy decisions adopted in Portugal are in accordance with the EU policy framework, it does not necessarily follow that they were imposed by the Union and that they were in contradiction with the government's short-term objectives.