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The public service tasks provided by network industries have constantly evolved over the past twenty years, a change driven by European liberalisation policies. The targeting of economic efficiency, central to competition concerns, and the reorganisation of institutional control have clarified and modernised the content and the evaluation of these tasks as never before. This has, however, had an effect on the traditional principles behind public services and some obstacles have not yet been overcome, both due to the organisation of “historical” operators and to imperfect institutional control.