Price Regulation of Public Water Services and the Consequences of its Centralisation for Hungarian Municipalities

The article demonstrates the role price regulation plays in local networked public services mainly focusing on the sector of public water utility services, but also touching on public waste management services. It investigates how and on what grounds these originally local public services became national public services. The article points out that centralisation of regulation, and in particular of price regulation without a simultaneous, well-considered opening of market cannot be effective, neither does it support the objectives of the Water Framework Directive. The article argues that these characteristics could already in the near future lead to severe failures of service provision necessitating further transformation of the sector.