The importance of services in the EU economy has increased exponentially in the last decades as have the number and scope of EU rules, both those liberalising the provision of services and those protecting their recipients or consumers - the passengers, patients, viewers and bank depositors. However, these consumers, in their capacity as citizens, are increasingly disillusioned with the EU and its institutions.This book, written by practitioners, academics and advocates before the European Court, reflects on these developments, examining rules in numerous service sectors, from the capping of roaming call charges upheld in the Vodafone decision, through health care, to the requirement for air carriers to care for and compensate passengers approved in the generous Sturgeon judgment. The Court's positive approach may have been guided by a desire to consolidate the notion of EU citizenship, a status introduced, but without clear content, at Maastricht. The book therefore considers whether these uniform, EU-wide, consumer rights may not form an important component of such European citizenship. The Commission's proposal to make 2013 European Year of Citizens seems to favour such a view.

Introduction 1 Overview Frank Benyon2 The Development of the Air Transport Policy of the European Union from the Point of View of the Consumer: From the Creation of the Internal Market to the Regulation of Consumer Rights Proper Mikko Huttunen3 Travel and Tourism Jens Karsten4 Electronic Communications and the EU Consumer Albert Nijenhuis5 Broadcasting and the EU Consumer Frank Benyon6 The Case Law of the European Court of Justice on the Mobility of Patients: An Assessment Julio Baquero-Cruz7 Limits To Rights to Health Care and the Extent of Member States' Discretion to Decide on the Parameters of Their Public Health Policies Roberto Cisotta8 Services and the EU Consumer - or the EU Citizen? Frank BenyonEpilogue