There isn't a single model that would fit all the countries in the region. Even though there has been a general increase in the overall level of market opening, competition, and effective regulation, it is not yet adequate to ensure optimal pricing in some markets; there is still insufficient opportunity for cross-border trading of energy due to inadequate infrastructure and coordination.
 While the European Union's Electricity Directive has defined a power sector reform path for the new EU member states and EU candidate countries to follow, the extent to which this program has been adhered to in some countries has been mixed. New EU country-members - Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia, and Lithuania – have already adopted the appropriate laws establishing a legal basis for the sector restructuring and separating generation from transmission and distribution. Regulatory agencies have been set up to ensure successful implementation of new cost-reflecting tariff-setting procedures. These agencies monitor compliance with the network access rules and facilitate private sector participation and competition.
 EU candidate countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and Turkey - have made substantial progress in sector reforms that are viewed as an integral part of the preparation for EU accession; they have had certain success in attracting private investment as well. Laws have been passed providing for full-scale restructuring of the industry, including vertical unbundling through account separation and setting up of a regulator. Progress with tariff reform and improvements in revenue collection have been made, with continued progress needed and expected.  The post-conflict countries of the Balkans – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro – have taken substantial steps toward the post-war stabilization, economic recovery and growth. Electricity losses have been reduced, tariffs increased and collections improved, yet there is a need for further advancement of the policy reforms and power enterprises restructuring. Nevertheless, all these countries will have an independent regulator and transmission system operator by mid-2005 as required under the provisions of the Energy Community of Southeast Europe (Athens Memorandum).
 Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan – possess substantial power generation capacity and extensive transmission and distribution infrastructure that was built primarily in the period from the 1940s to the 1980s. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the power sectors in all these countries have suffered from a lack of investment to maintain and upgrade the systems. This has resulted in a steady deterioration in the networks and a decline in the ability of these countries to meet their domestic demand requirements in an acceptable fashion. The degree to which sector reforms have been implemented in these countries varies significantly. Armenia and Moldova, for example, have been successful in attracting investment to the sector and in boosting both tariffs and collections to levels that cover the cost of the electricity supplied. At the other extreme, a number of countries, notably Turkmenistan, Belarus, and Uzbekistan have done very little to transition to a market-based approach to management of the sector and continue to provide significant subsidies to the sector. Even in these countries, however, concerns about the deterioration in the quality of the infrastructure and the associated quality of service have started to provide the impetus to implement some reform measures.
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