European Single Market Free Movement of Services

Abstract

The Freedom of services is a critical part of a mature economy. In the EU, the tertiary sector represent today 73.3% of the GDP. It is particularly important in the context of EU as it is knowledge intensive and very fluid by essence, ie low capital requirements so more mobile. However, given its strong natural agility and wide scope, it can also be misused to evade fiscal policies or unduly competing in EU some markets. For this, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union has set some key parameters such as it must be temporary in nature, and the member States can still call on the exceptional provisions granted to them under the 'public authority' or the 'public policy, security and health' and treated separately transport, banking and insurance.In 1985, the ratio of freedom of services cases to freedom of goods case was 3:25 (10.7%) while in 2000 during the IT bubble, it was 31:27 (54%) and today it is 43:10 (81%). In the light of this, the rulings of the ECJ have been critical in shaping the fairness of this growing industry, and equally important were the appreciation tests developed to qualify the admissibility of the exceptions raised.