Cross border services in the internal market
An important contribution to economic and social cohesion
Cross-border services and posted workers are of vital importance for companies, customers and workers. There can be neither a well-functioning European single market nor proper convergence between Member States' economies without services and posting. In almost no other area are issues of the economy, employment, social justice and the single market so closely interlinked with one another.
The study commissioned by the European Economic and Social Committee aims at directing result of the debate on the revision of the Posted Workers Directive by providing information, figures and data on cross-border services and posted workers.
While research on industrial value chains is broadly covered in recent years, the effects of value-chains in European service sectors still needs to be quantified. Especially the impact of cross border services in the EU need further coverage. This study tries to fill this gap by quantifying the number of employees dependent on the exports of services to other member states. It especially examines the contribution of cross border services to a productive competition and to economic and social cohesion within the European Union using established statistic tools.
By describing the positive effects of cross border services in the EU the potential risks of overregulation of the European cross border service market can be examined.
Manuel Fritsch / Roman Bertenrath