Industrial enterprise and European integration : from national to international champions in Western Europe / edited by Jack Hayward.

Introduction : Europe's endangered industrial champions / Jack Hayward -- France : national champions in search of a mission / Elie Cohen -- Germany : challenges to the old policy style / Josef Esser -- Britain : the spectator state / Wyn Grant -- Italy : the crisis of an introvert state / Patrizio Bianchi -- The European electricity industry and EC regulatory reform / Francis McGowan -- Aerospace companies and the state in Europe / Pierre Muller -- Air transport champions : still carrying the flag / Hussein Kassim -- The Channel tunnel : the problems of binational collaboration / Ian Holliday -- Regulatory reform and internationalization in telecommunications / Mark Thatcher -- European Community regulation and national enterprise / Stephen Woolcock and Helen Wallace -- The European Community and the restructuring of Europe's national champions / Andrew Cox and Glyn Watson -- Conclusion : the state and major enterprises in Western Europe : enduring complexities / Vincent Wright.

For centuries, states have attempted to increase their national wealth by protecting and promoting certain privileged enterprises. Since the 1960s, this phenomenon has accelerated with the emergence of 'national champions' - firms specially selected and promoted by governments to carry the national flag into the internationally competitive arena. This volume focuses on how European national champions have fared in an increasingly globalized industrial context. After setting the four national policy contexts of France, Germany, Britain, and Italy, it considers four major industrial sectors comparatively: electricity, aerospace, air transport, and telecommunications. It goes on to examine the binational collaboration involved in the Channel Tunnel project. It concludes with an assessment of the increasing impact of the European Union on Europe's national champions as they lose their national identity and monopoly status and become Europeanized, globalized, and hybridized.