EN
The objective of the paper is to analyse and assess the Service Directive for establishing the EU’s single service market. Adopted by the European Parliament on 12 December 2006, the Directive is part of the process aimed at supporting integration in all the areas related to the internal market. The paper focuses on three major issues. The introduction (part I) presents the core of the problem and the reasons for liberalising the EU’s service market. Part II focuses on the single market’s “architecture” in the context of the Directive’s recommendations. Part III justifies and analyses the solutions adopted by the Service Directive. In the conclusion I state that the creation of the EU’s single service market is likely to be a complex and lasting process. As such, the process constitutes an interesting field for further research on the single market’s regulation as well as the strategies for the functioning and expansion of service companies in the European economic area.