Bücher der Reihe Legal Issues of Services of General Interest

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the interaction between Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) and EU competition law, covering in particular Article 106 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and state aid rules. It also takes the telecommunications, postal service and transport sectors as case studies, taking into account the technological, economic and political backgrounds to these sectors.The area of SGEI has undergone fundamental developments over the past three decades and the most recent changes in the Lisbon Treaty, recognizing SGEI as a shared value and granting explicit competence to the EU, mark its constitutional significance. The key issue is how to balance economic values underlying competitive markets and non-economic public service values such as universal access to essential services. The essence of the question is the relationship between the market and the state. This controversial issue is addressed through a critical analysis of a number of landmark EU Court judgments and Commission decisions over the decades.Offering a clear appreciation of the evolution of the EU regulatory framework on SGEI that lays out the limits and boundaries within which the Member States define, organize and fund SGEI, the book is particularly aimed at academics with a research interest in the interaction between public services and EU competition law, but as it also demonstrates clearly how the application of EU competition law has transformed the public utilities sectors, it will be of interest to law makers, legal professionals and policy makers as well.Dr. Lei Zhu is a Research Associate at the Institute of International Law at Wuhan University in Wuhan, China. He studied at the Institute for Competition & Procurement Studies of the Bangor University Law School in Wales, United Kingdom, where he obtained his PhD in law in 2015.

This book investigates the impact of EU law and policy on the Member States' higher education institution (HEI) sectors with a particular emphasis on the exposure of research in universities to EU competition law.

This book offers a legal understanding regarding the core elements of SGEI (Services of General Interest), and of how the post-Lisbon constitutional framework on SGEI affects the application of the EU market rules by the EU Court of Justice, including procurement rules, to public services. It is built up of three parts, namely Part I: No Exit from EU Market Law for Public Services, Part II: SGEI as a Constitutional Voice for Public Services in EU Law, and Part III: The cost of loyalty, the relationship between EU procurement and state aid legislation on social services and the Treaty rules on SGEI, ending with a case study of Swedish systems of choice. Analyses are also provided on how the EU legislator engages in the Europeanisation of social services through EU procurement and state aid rules that have an ambiguous relationship to the Treaty framework on SGEI. Some explanation to this ambiguity is proposed by studying how the application of EU state aid rules could hinder the development of Swedish systems of choice liberalizing publicly-funded elderly care and school education.  Included are propositions on crucial but yet unsettled legal questions, in particular what the legal meaning and relevance of the notion of economic activity in EU market law are and which core elements characterize SGEI. This book is therefore mainly aimed at legal academics and practitioners but may also be of interest to political scientists.   Caroline Wehlander studied at Umea University and holds the title of Doctor of Laws. She lives and works in Sweden.

This book is a systematic comparative study of WTO and EU law relevant for universal service provision, and a timely contribution to the ongoing scholarly and policy debates about the concept and scope of universal service.Universal service is one of the most significant regulatory issues worldwide and it is likely to remain so. The central question dealt with by the author is how the technologically intensive sector of telecommunications services can be regulated in a socially fair way in the light of liberalisation and the immense importance of ICTs in the Information Society. The author investigates whether the legal frameworks of WTO and EU can meet the challenges of the rapid and dramatic technological and social change and formulates relevant policy recommendations.The book is of interest to both scholars and practitioners in several disciplines, such as EU and WTO law, telecommunications law and regulation, political science regarding market regulation and governance as well as European integration and WTO.Olga Batura is affiliated to the Leuphana Law School, University of Luneburg, Germany, and to the European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithania.

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 "e;moving target"e; 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.

Politically sensitive and economically important, welfare services such as health care, health insurance and education have opened up a heated debate in the EU. The application of EU law to welfare services raises discontent from the part of the Member States who perceive their systems to be under threat. Resisting to the application of the EU law is sometimes seen as part of protecting those values. This book suggests that this resistance is largely unjustified. EU law is not damaging to welfare systems, but it provides adequate balancing mechanisms to ensure that all interests are protected. The approach taken in analysing the impact of EU law on welfare services is to look at the negative integration process and answer the questions related to the extent to which EU law applies to welfare services and the kinds of safeguards the Court offers for these services. The proportionality principle distinguishes itself as the central element in balancing national and Community interests. Being part of the broader integration process, negative harmonization creates legislative lacunae, and therefore, this book also looks at alternative solutions to the negative harmonization process, namely positive and soft law.

This is the first book ever to assess comprehensively the impact of EU international agreements on services of general interest.Services of general interest remain high on the political and legal agenda of the European Union. However, the debates about the impact of EU law on services of general interest usually focus on internal market law such as the free movement of services, competition law, state aid rules and the law of public procurement. The external and international dimensions of the European legal framework for services of general interest are often overlooked. This book addresses the impact of international trade and investment agreements on public services and the role these services play in EU external relations. It shows that the inherent tension between establishing and securing undistorted competition on markets and the logic of public services exists in international economic law in a similar way as in EU internal law.Given the contentiousness of international trade and investment agreements as well as the EU¿s external policies, the issues discussed in this volume are timely and relevant and contribute to the ongoing debate about the future of services of general interest in the EU with fresh ideas and perspectives.Markus Krajewski is Professor of Public and International Law at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.

The third volume in the series Legal Issues of Services of General Interest, this book examines and analyzes a set of research questions on the most recent developments in the emergence of services of general interest as a distinct European Union concept.

The aim of the present volume is to explore the consequences of the impact of the EU rules for the internal market (including the proposed Directive on patients' rights) and competition on national health care systems.

The third volume in the series Legal Issues of Services of General Interest, this book examines and analyzes a set of research questions on the most recent developments in the emergence of services of general interest as a distinct European Union concept.

This book explores the consequences of the impact of the EU rules for the internal market, including the proposed Directive on patients' rights, competition on national health care systems, and related areas.

The EU has limited legislative competence in the field of social law. The EU response to this sensitive issue has resulted in a piecemeal and fragmented approach towards the treatment of a new policy area of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI) in EU law and policy.