| Zusammenfassung: | In order to ensure that certain "public services" are guaranteed and available for the public, EU member countries can impose specific obligations on public or private service providers. The objective of this study is to assess how public services are financed and when those arrangements may create competition problems. The two key tasks are: 1. identifying the provided public services and developing a typology of used financing models, and 2. identifiying (potential) competition and efficiency problems for the selected sectors and countries and subsequent mapping to the financing models. This study focuses on the service provision in three sectors (waste, hospitals, broadband technology) within seven countries and is based on publically available information. The identification and description of the provided public services and their financing models (first key task) is primarily based on the assessment of the actual public intervention. Beside the financial mechanisms, attention is also paid to regulation and public ownership. With regard to the second key task, the main focus is on the (risk of) overcompensation and cross-subsidisation. This is in line with the general (state aid) principle that public service providers should not "profit" from the fact that they carry out this service.
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