The New Services Directive of the European Union – Hopes and Expectations from the Angle of a (further) Completion of the Internal Market: Spanish Report

Abstract

This work deals with the legal problems and expectations of the transposition of the Directive 2006/123/EC (Services Directive) in Spain. This contribution reviews the national debates on the implementing rules, the constitutional repercussions arising from its transposition, and the scope and effects of the Services Directive in Spanish law, taking into account both its substantive and procedural provisions. The major legal consequence of the implementation of the Services Directive in Spain will be administrative simplification. The Spanish services market suffers from legal opacity and complexity due to the mixture of regulating competencies of different Administrations. From a general point of view, this is the most important entry barrier for foreign providers of services. The establishment of points of single contact, accessible by electronic means, if successfully achieved, will represent a revolutionary progress in a traditionally burdensome and bureaucratic set of Administrations. It will also reduce the economic inefficiencies derived from political decentralisation. From a material point of view, the evaluation process may help to detect regional and local norms which have to be reconciled with Community law, and that have passed unnoticed in the past, because of their limited territorial scope of application.