After over a decade of politically sensitive regulatory development regarding third party access tariffs, cost-reflectivity became the European tariffication principle and entry–exit the structure of choice. The Netherlands and the UK are often cited as examples of good implementation of European regulation. This paper analyses the three key regulatory questions that need to be answered: • which costs are reflected • how are they reflected in the total revenue requirement • how is this revenue requirement allocated to shippers This paper then establishes that these questions are answered very differently in the Netherlands and in the UK. If the advanced implementation of the same set of EU regulations can lead to two different systems in two different countries, the EU regulation clearly fails to streamline regulation. Depending on the regulatory objectives pursued, streamlining regulation may be necessary and renewed regulatory efforts are required. In doing so, the way in which the three key questions are answered is vital.