In considering either the EU Services Directive or WTO rules on
services, it is clear that the goal in each case is the same: the removal of
obstacles to the free movement of services. However, a number of formidable
forces and#8211; including the anti-globalisation movement, other civil society
groups, and some EU Member States and#8211; have raised concerns regarding the effect
of liberalization of services on the quality and availability of public
services such as health care and education, and the compatibility of such
liberalization with social policy objectives. Thus it is clear that the
central question at both EU and WTO level is how to balance the proper
functioning of the services market and the realization of general interest
issues.

This book, which is the outcome of a 2006 conference organized by the Europa
Institute of Utrecht and edited at the Radboud University Nijmegen, makes a
major contribution to improving the understanding of services liberalization
and its limits in both the scholarly and public debate. Eleven well-known
authorities in European and international (economic) law deal incisively with
such crucial issues as the following:

• 
  the influence of the EU Services Directive on the national legal orders of the
  Member States;
  


• 
  the relationship between EU law on the liberalization of services and
  fundamental rights;
  


• 
  the case law of the ECJ on services of general economic interest;
  


• 
  prospects for harmonization of services of general economic interest at EU
  level;
  


• 
  the impact of public procurement law on services;
  


• 
  interrelation of WTO rules and the EU law on services; and
  


• 
  how public interest issues are accommodated in WTO law.
  

It is surprising that, as the services sector plays a major role in Europeand#8217;s
economy, legal scholarship in this area is so sparse. This in-depth
examination of tensions emerging between the goals of the European market and
general interest objectives at the level of the Member States fills an
important need for lawyers, policymakers, officials, and academics striving to
clarify and formulate effective principles and rules in this important area of
the European and global economies.