Veronique Wavre
Former Member
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PhD
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Wavre
First name
Veronique

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  • Publication
    The Rise of the Policy-Takers: Universal Service Policy Adoption in Jordan and Morocco
    (Intellect, 2020-09)
    Wavre, Veronique
    In the late 1990s, Jordan and Morocco revised their telecommunications regulation drastically. Though these regulations were first largely inspired by the European Union policy models, each country gradually developed more autonomy, individually tailoring their regulatory frameworks overtime. The case of Universal Service Obligation (USO) policies show that while Jordan remained aligned with the European Union, Moroccan policy-makers diverged from the European Union by adopting alternative policies, inspired by the Latin American reverse-auction models. Research focusing on Euro-Mediterranean egulatory contexts commonly expect neighbouring countries to converge with EU regulatory models. Yet, borrowing on policy diffusion literature and specifically the mechanisms of learning and imitation, this article shows that policy-takers intentionally decided on the (non)adoption of USO policies. Thus, research needs to take the role of policy-takers seriously and acknowledge avenues for bidirectional convergence.
    Type: journal article
    Journal: Journal of Digital Media & Policy
    Issue: fast track
    URL: https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jdmp/pre-prints/content-jdmp_intellect_00039
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jdmp_00039_1
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/111840
  • Publication
    Policy Diffusion and Telecommunications Regulation
    (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
    Wavre, Véronique
    This study investigates regulatory reforms in the telecommunications sector of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. It explores telecommunications innovations in three developing economies (Morocco, Jordan and Egypt), with a focus on regional and European trends in telecommunications policies. Common knowledge suggests that the European Union and its member states are the main influential regulatory power in the MENA region. However, the empirical analysis of selected telecommunications regulations: universal service obligation (USO) and spectrum management, reveals that reforms are not always determined by European countries but may also originate from other developing countries, such as Peru and Chile. This finding attests to the rise of regulatory influence from the Global South, which challenges traditional transfers of regulations originating from more industrially advanced countries.
    Type: book
    URL: https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319707440
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-70745-7
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/101655
    Scopus© Citations 7
  • Publication
    Leapfrogging the EU: Telecommunications Regulation in Morocco
    (University of Michigan Press, 2020-10)
    Wavre, Veronique
    ;
    Freyburg, Tina
    ;
    Del Sarto, Raffaella
    ;
    Tholens, Simone
    The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is aimed at strengthening bilateral relations on a negotiated basis through extending parts of the EU’s acquis communautaire to immediate neighbours. Yet, in order to reach adjustment to its rules and regulations, the EU relies on the third states’ political engagement to introduce internal reforms on the EU model. This chapter zooms into a case of non-compliance, namely Morocco’s refusal to align its universal service obligations (USO) with the EU model. Universal service obligation is about ensuring that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are reasonably accessible to all people in a territory. Since the early 2000s, the EU has tried extending its model to its neighbouring countries in the south, notably through bilateral workshops and multilateral practice-sharing groupings such as the Euro-Mediterranean Group (EMERG) bringing together national regulatory authorities in the field of telecommunications. Yet, Morocco – the largest recipient of EU funds in the framework of the ENP and commonly portrayed as ‘model country’ – did not adopt the EU model; instead, it turned toward Latin American countries and learnt from the Chilean and Peruvian models through membership in international organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and World Bank. Drawing on theories of emerging power and based on 34 interviews of key experts in the field, we argue that USO, a low politicized sector, presented an ideal opportunity for the Moroccan government to show emancipation from the traditional dominant EU power. Morocco hence developed a model based on competitive allocation (similar to Chile and Peru) and on the use of a variety of technologies (including mobile services) while the EU still defends a model based on direct allocation to the incumbent operator focusing uniquely on fixed lines and functional services. By gearing its USO regulations to the Latin American models, the Moroccan government selected not only the policy solutions that best suited its national context but also leapfrogged what the EU had been doing in the field so far. Overall, this study presents not only an example of contestation to the transfer of EU policies, it also demonstrates how contestation can be successful in cases where an ENP-country decides to develop its own model inspired by alternatives that are better suited to its problem situation. It thus presents a case for policy learning based on the similarity of conditions rather than the institutionalised commitment to a traditional partner.
    Type: book section
    URL: https://www.press.umich.edu/9965409/resisting_europe
    URI: https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/111754