The Services Directive as a paradigm shift: from the guarantor State to the enabling Administration

The influential blog esPublico has published, in two installments, an article written by our executive advisor Eduardo Gamero Casado entitled “La Directiva de Servicios como cambio de paradigma: del Estado garante a la Administración facilitadora” (“The Services Directive as a paradigm shift: from the guarantor State to the enabling Administration”).

To mark the twentieth anniversary of Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market (the Services Directive), the article analyses how this European legislation represented a genuine turning point in the way the relationship between the public administration and citizens is understood, shifting from a model centred on prior control to one based on facilitation and trust.

The author highlights that the Services Directive was not just another reform, but a genuine paradigm shift: the widespread application of the principles of proportionality and minimal intervention, as well as the transition from ex ante controls (authorisations, licences) to ex post controls (declarations of compliance, notifications), have had an impact far beyond the sphere of services, permeating the entire legal system.

The article addresses, among other issues, the context of regulatory overload —with recurring administrative costs that are particularly burdensome for businesses and citizens— the main simplification techniques (“better regulation” versus “better administration” and hybrid approaches such as e-government), as well as the transposition of the directive into Spanish law and its far-reaching effects on the case law of the Supreme Court and the CJEU.

The paper also pays particular attention to the regulatory “aftermath” of the Services Directive: from the Sustainable Economy Act (2011) and the Market Unity Guarantee Act (2013) to the subsequent proliferation of regional simplification laws, which have been adopted across the board and irrespective of the political majorities in power at any given time.

Finally, the article reflects on the shift from “due administrative procedure” to “appropriate administrative procedure”, emphasising the need to balance efficiency and safeguards, and outlines the emergence of the facilitating Administration: an Administration conceived as an ally—rather than an obstacle—to citizens and the private sector.

You can read both parts of the full article here: