Introduction -- Unity and Diversity of SSGIs in the European Union -- Welfare States and Social Europe -- Social Services of General Interest – the EU Competence Regime and a Constitution of Social Governance -- SSGIs and Solidarity: Constitutive Elements of the EU’s Social Market Economy?- Free Movement of Services and the Right of Establishment in the Services Directive: Does EU Internal Market Law Transform the Provision of SSGIs?- Free Movement of Workers and Union Citizens -- Freedom to Fund?: The Effects of the Internal Market Rules, With Particular Emphasis on Free Movement of Capital -- The Concept of SSGI and the Asymmetries between Free Movement and Competition Law -- Public Distortions of Competition – The Importance of Article 106 TFEU and the State Action Doctrine -- Private Distortions of Competition and SSGIs -- Social Services of General Interest and the State Aid Rules -- Soft Law and Safe Havens -- Social Services of General Interest and the EU Public Procurement Rules -- Preserving General Interest in Healthcare through Secondary and Soft EU Law: The Case of the Patients’ Rights Directive -- The Scope of the EU ‘Pensions’-Directive: Some Background and Solutions for Policymakers -- The Political Economy of Regulating Longevity Insurance in the EU -- SSGIs in Sweden With a Special Emphasis on Education -- Social Services of General Interest in Germany -- Changes and Challenges in UK Social Services: Social Services of General Interest or ‘Welfare’ Services of General Economic Interest?- The Provision of Social Services in Italy between Federalization and Europeanization -- SSGIs in the Czech Republic -- Conclusions -- Table of Cases.

The EU has limited legislative competence in the field of social law. However, the Member States are increasingly modernizing social services and social (welfare) protection, attempting to make social services more efficient by increasingly looking to the market for the provision of such services. This policy move brings social services into the radar of EU law.  The EU response to this sensitive issue has resulted in a piecemeal and fragmented approach towards the treatment of a new policy area of Social Services of General Interest (SSGI) in EU law and policy. This book is a first contribution towards charting how SSGI have emerged as a special category of SGI in the EU, the reaction of the Member States and stake-holders and how policy is being made through new governance processes, carve-outs and safe havens in legislation and soft law, especially in the light of the new values of the EU introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon 2009. It takes an inter-disciplinary approach and will be of interest to lawyers, economists and political scientists who are interested in EU policy-making as well as practioners, EU and national policy-makers.