Shchodra O. Legal regulation of movement of services in the European Union.

The thesis is devoted to the comprehensive study of the legal regulation of freedom of movement of services in EU law. The study analyzes the legal provisions regulating the free movement of services in EU law on the basis of the founding EU treaties, treaties of EU with third countries and acts of secondary EU law: directives and regulations; a comprehensive description of the elements of services in EU law is provided; the relationship and distinction of freedom of movement of services with other freedoms of the EU internal market is analyzed. The comprehensive study of all elements and criteria defining the service in EU law and regulating freedom of movement of services resulted in the author's definition of the service in the meaning of EU law. On the basis of judicial practice of the EU Court a comprehensive analysis of restrictions on freedom of movement of services has been conducted, giving as an outcome the author’s classification restrictions on freedom of movement of services types of restrictions. Following the Court’s conclusion that discrimination as a manifestation of restriction of freedom of movement of services emerges when different rules apply to similar situations (direct discrimination), and when the similar rules apply in different situations (indirect discrimination), the author suggests classifying these restrictions into two main groups: directly discriminative and indirectly discriminative the latter also including indistinctly applicable measures. The conclusions were made about the legality of the use of various types of restrictions and exceptions to free movement of services and the conditions justifying their use. Restrictions of freedom of movement of services can be justified on the grounds which are defined as exceptions from the Treaty provisions on services and these are: execution of official authority, protection of public security, order and public health. ECJ has also put into practice another category of admissible and rightful restrictions on movement of services, such as a imperative requirements on the ground of general interest. Application of the measures is necessary to justify the legality of indirectly discriminatory restrictions which until now can not be restricted or banned by the Court of Justice. Their normative content remains controversial because these measures are different in all EU member-states but being enshrined at the constitutional level, these imperative requirements are still considered as acceptable restrictions of freedom of movement of services. Contractual basis of the EU and third countries and acts of EU secondary law served as the ground for studying the peculiarities of the patterns of legal regulation of EU cooperation with third countries in the sphere of services provision in the EU internal market by third-country nationals.