Are you being served? Europeanizing and re-regulating the single market in services

While the freedom of service provision is one of the pillars of the Single Market Project, such deregulation clashes with national wage regulation and social policy-making. This article examines recent attempts by the European Commission to further promote liberalization, epitomized in the so-called ‘Bolkestein Directive’, as well as three case studies of political conflict involving the transnational posting of workers within the framework of service liberalization in Ireland, Sweden and Germany. Re-regulation of service provision by governments is crucially affected by the lobbying efforts of trade unions and employers. Internal organizational characteristics of labour market interest associations are crucial in predicting their effectiveness. The deregulatory effects are felt most severely in Germany, while even in Sweden the former gentlemen’s agreement can no longer be sustained without serious modification. In France, no conflict unfolded. In Ireland, a business-friendly comprise emerges, whilst the European Union directive was severely watered down, though not neutered.