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.

Introduction.- Background to the Harmonisation of the Free Movement of Services.- Transposing the Services Directive.- The Services Directive as Legislative Tool.- National Regulatory Autonomy versus Conferred Powers in the Services Directive.- Bases for Defining the Scope of Articles 49 and 56 TFEU and the Services Directive.- Scope and Effect as Defined by Restrictiveness and Justifications.- Definition of "Measures" and "Requirements".- Scope of "Service Activities".- New and Multi-Level Governance within the Union.- Contextual Understanding of the Services Directive.- The Services Directive Constituting Simply Policy.