The Legal Environment of Services of General Economic Interest
(2013) JAEM03 20131Department of Law
- Abstract
- Services of general economic interest are economic activities that public authorities identify as being of particular importance to citizens and that would not be supplied or would be supplied under different conditions if there were no public intervention. Examples of services of general economic interest are transport networks, postal services and social services
They are provided by States to its citizens either directly or through the private sector.
Effective competition rules are essential to the proper functioning of the internal market of the European Union and the Union is based upon a principle of an open market economy with free competition. Effective competition is believed to be to the benefits of consumers as it should... (More) - Services of general economic interest are economic activities that public authorities identify as being of particular importance to citizens and that would not be supplied or would be supplied under different conditions if there were no public intervention. Examples of services of general economic interest are transport networks, postal services and social services
They are provided by States to its citizens either directly or through the private sector.
Effective competition rules are essential to the proper functioning of the internal market of the European Union and the Union is based upon a principle of an open market economy with free competition. Effective competition is believed to be to the benefits of consumers as it should generate lower prices.
There is a tension between the Union´s views on liberalisation and competition and the duties that Member States owe their citizens. It is clear that Member States are not allowed to organise their provisions of services of general economic interest as they please but at the same time it would render it impossible in some cases to provide these services if their performance fell completely under the rules on competition as State resources used to facilitate these services would be considered an unfair advantage.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has in later years favored the interests of the Member States and their freedom to define and conduct services of general economic interest over those of the competition rules. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/4075646
- author
- Aðalsteinsdóttir, Helga Lilja LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JAEM03 20131
- year
- 2013
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 4075646
- date added to LUP
- 2013-10-15 13:45:43
- date last changed
- 2013-10-15 13:45:43
@misc{4075646,
abstract = {{Services of general economic interest are economic activities that public authorities identify as being of particular importance to citizens and that would not be supplied or would be supplied under different conditions if there were no public intervention. Examples of services of general economic interest are transport networks, postal services and social services
They are provided by States to its citizens either directly or through the private sector.
Effective competition rules are essential to the proper functioning of the internal market of the European Union and the Union is based upon a principle of an open market economy with free competition. Effective competition is believed to be to the benefits of consumers as it should generate lower prices.
There is a tension between the Union´s views on liberalisation and competition and the duties that Member States owe their citizens. It is clear that Member States are not allowed to organise their provisions of services of general economic interest as they please but at the same time it would render it impossible in some cases to provide these services if their performance fell completely under the rules on competition as State resources used to facilitate these services would be considered an unfair advantage.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has in later years favored the interests of the Member States and their freedom to define and conduct services of general economic interest over those of the competition rules.}},
author = {{Aðalsteinsdóttir, Helga Lilja}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Legal Environment of Services of General Economic Interest}},
year = {{2013}},
}