State-Owned Enterprises in the EU: Lessons Learnt and Ways Forward in a Post-Crisis Context

European Economy Institutional Papers are important reports and communications from the European Commission to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on the economy and economic developments.

State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are companies where the state exercises control. SOEs are important in the economy, in particular in network industries and in some new Member States. SOEs have been resilient to the crisis and their performance has an impact on public budget. The principal objective of SOE reform should be to improve accountability and efficiency. Privatisation should in most cases be accompanied by market reform. In the network sectors SOEs and private companies display comparable performances while the gap is evident in the manufacturing sectors in new Member States.