Open Access

Johannes Socher

• With Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, the question of the lasting legacy of a specific English administrative culture in the remaining member states arises. Although often treated as an import from the United States, this article argues that the British model of independent regulatory authorities is one of the most formative contributions to a common European administrative culture, forcing other EU member states to rethink fundamental ideas of democratic legitimacy. Taking national regulatory authorities in the energy sector as an example, this contribution shows how British approaches towards organisation and independence of these authorities played a decisive role in the drafting of the relevant EU directives. Consequently, only few changes in UK national legislation where necessary to comply, while in Germany major reforms were due, being the only member state in which no regulatory authority existed in the energy sector prior to the implementation of the EU directives. The analysis of these European requirements, the British influence on them, and the different ways of their implementation in the United Kingdom and Germany are the subject of this article.