Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Hans-W. Micklitz
either be it as a policy or legal concept. As a general “policy guiding principle” –
not to say as a legal principle – in standard-making, it cannot be reduced to a
mere economic efficiency orientated model. Best practice needs to integrate
value driven elements. It is one of the challenges of the project to define such a
common set of parameters. The elements which can be derived from the
sector-specific rules might enlarge the perspective. The so identified best
practice would then have to be condensed to core consumer elements. These
parameters have to be rather broad so as to cover all sorts of services. It is selfevident
that certain services require only certain parameters, not all parameters
are equally relevant for all types of services. The definition of core elements
must do justice to the diversity of the services and at the same time provide for
criteria which are equally applicable to all sorts of services. Again, the broader
regulatory framework – the standardisation of services on the one hand, and the
sector-specific EC rules on the other – in the New Approach type of thinking,
might help to meet the challenge.
In a fourth step the core consumer elements are used as a yardstick to screen
the existing EC regulation of services as well as the technical standards
(chapter V). In order to allow for a better comparison, EC regulation and the
technical standards are grouped around six major issues: existing EC regulation
of services, standardisation in tourism services, services for the elderly,
furniture removal, postal services, and transport services.
The last part of the study places the concrete findings of the study, i.e. mainly
the core consumer elements, in the broader European regulatory context
(chapter VI). The results will contribute to promote a consumer-orientated policy
on standardisation of services, in particular in the Service Directive in the
Internal Market. The summary should tie together the different regulatory
approaches of the European Community and specify where and how the core
consumer elements could be integrated into a European regulatory framework.
This will be done by formulating minimum or baseline requirements.
Chapter II: Existing EC Regulation of services
I. Type of services (vertical classification)
The overall purpose of the analysis of existing EC regulation of services is to
demonstrate the different areas of services where the European Community
has already taken action. Such a survey contributes to the envisaged study at
least in a two-fold sense, it demonstrates the areas where each and every
attempt to standardise services has to respect the legal framework in which
standardisation has to be embedded. At the same time the survey allows at a
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