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In the EU public services, utilities and welfare services can be seen as both building blocks for the internal market and as a persistent irritant in the integration process. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the EU law on public services within the context of European integration. It brings together important analysis of the primary Treaty law, mainly on the internal market and competition, and of the secondary legislation at EU level, including different sector specific regimes. Particular attention is given to case law of the EU courts. This will be essential reading for those looking to have a broader understanding of the subject.

This article is intended to give an overview of the law as it stands on telecommunications at the Community level. Over the past ten years the telecommunications law and policy of the European Community have developed rapidly along the twin axes of liberalisation (deregulation) and harmonisation (reregulation). The innovative use of Article 90 EEC has been central to liberalisation, while most harmonisation legislation has been based on open network provision (ONP) passed under Article 100a. The article concludes that, now the national monopolies have been largely dismantled, new issues will arise in the competitive market.

The proportionality principle plays a key role in constitutional review of public acts. Its use legitimises the constitutional claims of EU law in the context of a multi-level polity system. The application of proportionality in the EU differs based on whether legal acts of the EU or of its Member States are concerned. In the former case, a manifestly disproportionate test is usually applied, while in the latter case, a least restrictive means test (LRM) is normally used. Both are conditioned by the degree of integration achieved. In future, the use of the principle may involve increasing attention being paid to individual rights.

This paper looks at the origins and limits of EU health law and policy. The main questions asked are whether EU health law is expanding and how; whether it operates within fixed limits; and whether healthcare is a special case in EU integration. Special attention is paid to the emergence of a specific legal basis in Article 168 TFEU alongside the general internal market provisions of the EU, and its sector-specific subsidiarity provision which suggests healthcare was at least intended to be a special case: a policy largely reserved to the national level. In practice however the EU competence in this field is expanding not only as a matter of negative integration (striking down conflicting national rules to promote the internal market), but also in terms of cooperation between the Member States. Finally the recent impact of general financial curbs on the welfare State (such as are imposed in the context of the European semester) show that in spite of national efforts to retain control over healthcare, such control is in fact steadily eroded. The result is less the emergence of a unified EU policy than a complex system of partial overlapping national and EU competences that may come both come into conflict and complement each other.