The Single Market in Regulated Services

This is a closed-door off-the-record brainstorming session for selected invitees only.

An oft-quoted view of the EU single market policy is that it is all about the harmonisation of common rules and the removal of country-specific legal barriers. But in regulated services sectors, the policy framework includes various regimes of regulatory enforcement (e.g. authorisations, price-setting, supervision, and administrative sanctions) which entail an irreducible component of discretion at the hand of the competent authority, which in most cases is national not European. Furthermore, regulated services sectors, which include digital services, finance, and energy distribution, tend to play an increasing role in the EU economy. This brainstorming session will explore tensions and trade-offs between the policy aim of a single market and the dominant enforcement role of national authorities.