The EU Services Directive is one of the cornerstones for the realization of the EU internal market and is fundamental to economic and legal experts in governments, trade and industry, as well as to the general public. This book analyses in detail the different steps taken by each of 26 EU Member States (all but Greece) in the implementation process of the Services Directive. It provides not only detailed information about the changes in national law adopted by the Member States, but also facilitates a comparison of the different implementation strategies. It gives an insight in the heterogeneity or homogeneity of implementation concepts and shows how European legislation affects legislation that was originally nationally dominated, such as the law of national administration. This book is valuable reading for academics interested in European and administrative law and the transposition of European directives into domestic law, as well as for practitioners and civil servants in ministries, chambers of commerce, local governments and other comparable institutions having to implement the Directive. Ulrich Stelkens and Wolfgang Weiß are both University Professors of Law at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer and Ordinary Members of the German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer, Michael Mirschberger (Ass. Jur.) is research assistant at both institutions.

The EU Services Directive is difficult to achieve without also affecting issues of national social policy, closely related to the welfare state. The EU Services Directive’s characteristics have raised numerous legal questions essential for its full understanding and implementation. It has become a “moving target” for the national administrations. In this book important issues are covered: is the EU Services Directive to be interpreted as law or simply policy and what are its actual effects on the regulatory autonomy of the Member States? Does it represent a new and innovative instrument which facilitates prosperous integration within the EU or, has the EU legislator gone beyond its regulatory competence? This book helps to understand the EU Services Directive and its effects on the regulatory autonomy of the Member States of the European Union in a broader perspective. It is valuable for academics, practitioners and officials both nationally as well within the EU institutions.

The EU Services Directive was adopted in 2006 to foster competition in services across Europe. However, progress in liberalizing services has fallen short of expectations due to the article 15 of the Directive, which allows countries to maintain pre-existing restrictions if judged necessary to protect the public interest. Through input output analysis, this paper finds important multiplier effects of greater efficiency services to the rest of the economy. A renewed impulse to the liberalization process could be given by enhancing the advocacy role of national competition authorities in interpreting the notion of public interest underpinning existing regulations.

This work deals with the legal problems and expectations of the transposition of the Directive 2006/123/EC (Services Directive) in Spain. This contribution reviews the national debates on the implementing rules, the constitutional repercussions arising from its transposition, and the scope and effects of the Services Directive in Spanish law, taking into account both its substantive and procedural provisions. The major legal consequence of the implementation of the Services Directive in Spain will be administrative simplification. The Spanish services market suffers from legal opacity and complexity due to the mixture of regulating competencies of different Administrations. From a general point of view, this is the most important entry barrier for foreign providers of services. The establishment of points of single contact, accessible by electronic means, if successfully achieved, will represent a revolutionary progress in a traditionally burdensome and bureaucratic set of Administrations. It will also reduce the economic inefficiencies derived from political decentralisation. From a material point of view, the evaluation process may help to detect regional and local norms which have to be reconciled with Community law, and that have passed unnoticed in the past, because of their limited territorial scope of application.

Exploring the importance of the EU Services Directive (Directive 2006/123), this book provides an expansive insight into the controversial legislation regulating the internal market in services, whilst examining the challenges of positive harmonisation. In addition, by analysing the functioning and judicial interpretation of the directive, it considers EU trade regulation values and the broader significance of EU regulation in global regulatory standard setting.