Article 36 – access to services of general economic interest

EU internal market law (including procurement law and policy), competition law and state aidlaw can all impact on services of general economic interest (SGEI), especially the policy of liberalisation of networked services. The spill-over from these policy areas creates a number of complex issues. Article 14 TFEU gives the EU a competence to regulate SGEI but to date this competence has not been used, with the European Commission preferring to use new governance and soft law.