Charlemagne: Not yet free to serve

摘要

This week is likely to be remembered in Brussels as one in which the European Parliament celebrated the 20th anniversary of the single market by preventing its expansion into the largest segment of Europe's economies. The Single European Act, signed into law on February 17th 1986, paved the way for a common market in goods; it made companies more efficient through increased competition and economies of scale and benefited consumers by putting downward pressure on prices. In its original form, the so-called "Bolkestein directive" was supposed to do the same for services, that is, for economic activities you cannot put on a train (like finance, hairdressing, or retailing). The European Commission estimated that the original plan would have boosted income by 1.8% and created 2.5m extra jobs (other estimates put the welfare and employment gains lower).