The European Single Market is not yet complete, especially because cross-border trade in services within the EU is still subject to major restrictions. The EU Services Directive, which came into force at the end of 2006, identifies the remaining barriers to intra-European trade in services with the aim of removing the legal, administrative and economic restrictions on this trade. This would allow the economic potential of the services sector within the EU to be exploited to a greater extent, thus promoting prosperity. As long as this is not the case, one can by no means speak of the realization of the four Freedoms in the EU. This volume examines the problems and opportunities of a free internal market for services from an economic and legal perspective. It documents selected papers on this topic that were the subject of expert discussions at two conferences in Budapest and Hamburg in 2008 and 2009.
