The Lisbon Strategy and the politicization of EU policy-making: the case of the Services Directive

Abstract

This contribution explores how the Lisbon Strategy affected the politics of policy-making surrounding the Services Directive (2006). The Lisbon Strategy promoted a fundamental rethink of how to integrate service markets for enhancing the competitiveness of the European economy, without clear evidence that it was politically viable or even desired at the national level. Specifically, it examines how the Lisbon Strategy provoked the introduction of a radical policy idea without organizing a meaningful consultation with non-state actors at the preparatory stage. This mismatch between the ideational and organizational components resulted in a politicization of the process, eventually empowering the European Parliament.

Keywords:

• European Parliament
• Lisbon agenda
• policy-making
• politicization
• regulatory policy-making
• services integration

Notes

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in Internal Market and Services Directorate on 23 June 2006.

For example, during discussions of the importance of services of general economic interest in the mid-1990s, the Commission consistently promulgated the view that ‘the globalisation of trade, the completion of the internal market and rapid technological change bring about increasing pressure to open new sectors to competition’ (European Commission 2000: 1).

The ECJ has made it clear that service providers not established in the member state in which they are offering a service should not be subject to all the regulatory mechanisms in that country. In other words, if the service is of a temporary nature the service provider should not be subject to burdensome authorization and regulatory procedures as long as the service provider is established in the EU. The ECJ has ruled that informal and formal practices that unfairly restrict the free movement and establishment of services between member states are in violation of the EC Treaty. See. (European Court of Justice 1991)

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official the Council of the European Union: General Secretariat, 28 June 2006.

In the first stage the Commission would complete a detailed analysis of existing barriers. In the second stage, the Commission would introduce both legislative and non-legislative horizontal community-wide harmonization measures to address existing barriers to services identified in its analysis. See European Commission (2000).

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official the Council of the European Union: General Secretariat, 28 June 2006. Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in the UK Permanent Representation to the EU, 26 June 2006.

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official the Council of the European Union: General Secretariat, 28 June 2006. Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in the Italian Permanent Representation to the EU, 20 February 2010.

Interview by the author with ahigh-ranking official in the EUTC on 16 February 2010.

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in Internal Market and Services Directorate on 24 June 2006

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in Internal Market and Services Directorate on 23 June 2006.

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in the EUTC on 16 February 2010.

Interview by the author with a representative of the European Commission: Internal Market and Services, 23 June 2006.

All those interviewed independently made this claim.

Given how recently the revised Directive was adopted, there is still considerable uncertainty about its overall impact on European integration. Chang et al. (2010) have recently argued based on a longer view of the development of EU law surrounding services that the differences between the Proposal and the revised Directive may not be as significant as some have claimed, though its scope was certainly reduced.

Interview by the author with a high-ranking official in the UK Permanent Representation to the EU, 26 June 2006.