Projekt / Project:
"Die Umsetzung der EU-Dienstleistungsrichtlinie in Europa"
"The Implementation of the Services Directive
in the EU Member States"
English Description of the Research Project
The Services Directive of the European Union (SD; 2006/123/EC; EU Official Journal ser. L 376, 27.12.2006, p. 36) is probably one of the most controversially discussed directives of the European Union ever. Catherine Barnard (45 C. M. L. Rev. (2008) p. 323) denotes it as the “legislative hot potato of the early twenty-first century”.
The twenty-seven Member States have to complete the transposition process of the Services Directive by the end of the year. The Services Directive has to be transposed into national law by December 28th 2009. All national legislators are currently aiming to meet the given deadline. Obviously there has been no cooperation or common approach of the Member States concerning a coordinated implementation.
In Germany the Services Directive was an inducement for further changes in administrative and administrative procedure law. Thus, the implementation in Germany goes beyond the minimum requirements of the Services Directive and worked, and still works as an incentive for reforms in public administration.
In a current research project of the German Research Institute for Public Administration Speyer pertaining to the implementation of the Services Directive in the EU Member States experts of the Member States examine whether the Services Directive has released similar impulse for the national legislator in their Member States as well. Additionally the participants examine how in concreto the implementation requirements have been perceived, assessed and realized in their Member States. Doubtlessly the ‘Handbook on implementation of the Services Directive’ by the European Commission has been a guideline for the national legislator. But the handbook is not binding and therefore different implementation strategies might be pursued by various Member States.
The participants' reports have been drafted within the frame of this Europe-wide English language research project. The national reports analyse the respective national legislation transposing the SD and identify the guiding ideas and principles of the individual national transposition based on an elaborate questionnaire. The research project aims at determining common approaches, or differences, in the implementation of the SD which will also be identified in a research symposium of participating national reporters on April 29th/30th 2010. This symposium is kindly supported by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung
(Fritz
Thyssen Foundation,
http://www.fritz-thyssen-stiftung.de/).
Recently the results of the research project have been published with T.M.C. Asser Press in cooperation with Springer Verlag in March 2012.
Please see publication.