Stopień zintegrowania wewnętrznego rynku usług Unii Europejskiej
Degree of integration of the EU internal market for services

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this study is to assess the degree of integration of the EU internal market for services and to indicate the main barriers in its effective functioning. The analysis has confirmed that the EU services market is less integrated than the market for goods. Intra-EU trade in services represents 6% of EU GDP while in goods over 20% of EU GDP. We can also observe the price dispersion between member states in service sector while in the goods market prices tend to converge. Comparison of the two main areas of the EU internal market for services: cross-border intra-EU trade and intra-EU foreign direct investments revealed that the first of them still plays a major role. Despite reducing the meaningful administrative burden concerning free trade in services (to a large extent as a result of implementation of the Services Directive) many obstacles have remained as regards free establishment. The full EU services market integration is prevented by too restrictive and divergent regulation of member states, existence of 800 regulated professions as well as protection of many national network industries.

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