The purpose of this chapter is to identify the key characteristics of the emerging modes of governing European network industries. With Giandomenico Majone (1990, 1996), we make the case that a European model of network industry regulation has developed since the liberaliza- tion of the telecommunications industry. Yet we go further than Majone by explicitly taking into account the technical systems underlying both liberalization and regulation of network industries. At present regulatory practices in Europe cover both the functions of regulation (that is, the dif- ferent aspects that are being regulated: competition, market creation, and technical and political aspects) and the institutions of regulation, generally a more or less independent regulatory agency.