The ToMaS research project involves an international group of researchers interested in analysing the changes since the 1980s in Europe in relation to the role of the State in providing goods and services (telecommunications, transport, postal and utility services, often through public monopolies) and traditional welfare goods and services (for example, education, healthcare social security). The project analyses the moves towards the liberalisation and privatisation of public and welfare markets. The role law has played in facilitating liberalisation and regulating the new competitive markets. The linkage between consumer rights and empowerment in liberalised markets has led to the development of  a consumer-citizenship agenda. The recognition of access to basic universal service rights and services of general (economic) interest has created new forms of rights for the consumer-citizen. This has affected the role of private law and challenged the traditional boundaries between public and private law.

The most recent conference was held in Copenhagen, May 2011 on The Role of Social Services of General Interest in EU Law: New Challenges and Tensions.
The Role of SSGI in EU Law: New Challenges and Tensions

Members

• Project Co-ordinator: Dr Jim Davies, jrd10@le.ac.uk
• Professor Erika Szyszczak, University of Leicester, ems11@le.ac.uk,
• Professor Markus Krajewski, Universities of Bremen and Potsdam, markus.krajewski@sfb597.uni-bremen.de
• Professor Ulla Neergaard, University of Copenhagen,Ulla.Neergaard@jur.ku.dk;
• Professor Johan van de Gronden, University of Nijmegen, J.vandeGronden@jur.ru.nl

News, Events and Publications

Three new book publications from the ToMaS Research Project

Professor Erika Szyszczak has edited three books during 2011. The Research Handbook on European State Aid Law, published by Edward Elgar analyses the critical and controversial role of using state funding which propelled issues of state aid to the centre of public discussion as the full extent of the financial crisis unfolded.

A second (co-edited) book, Legal Developments in Services of General Interest, published by TMC Asser Press contains two contributions from Leicester academics – Dr Jim Davies, a former LLM and PhD student who is now a Senior Lecturer at Northampton University, and Dr Priscilla Schwartz, a lecturer in law. 

The third (co-edited)  book, Health Care and EU Law, also published by TMC Asser Press, addresses the growing competence of the EU to regulate health care law in the Member States of the EU. This ranges from the mutual recognition of medical practioner qualifications, the free movement of medical professionals and establishments (such as medical or dental clinics), to allowing patients to move abroad for medical treatment. Controversially the EU has also assumed greater regulation over issues of medical ethics, data protection, procurement of medical services and equipment. These two collections of essays are the research outcomes of a series of international conferences that have been held in Potsdam, London and Nijmegen, with the  most recent conference in Copenhagen, May 2011 focusing on the current  issue facing the EU: The Role of Social Services of General Interest in EU Law: New Challenges and Tensions.

The edited collection of essays from this conference will be published by TMC Asser Press in 2012 in the Legal Issues of Services of General Interest series. The collection will contain essays from two former University of  Leicester academics, Dr Alina Tryfonidou (now at the University of Reading) and Dr Jim Davies (now at the University of Northampton).

November 2011

• Erika Szyszczak, "The Survival of the Market Econpmic Investor Principle in Liberalised Markets" (2011) 1 European State Aid Law Quarterly 35-40.
• The Changing Legal Framework for Services of General Interest in Europe - Between Competition and Solidarity (The Hague: TMC Asser Press), 2009 (editors: Markus Krajewski, Ulla Neergaard and Johan van de Gronden).
• Health Care and EU Law (The Hague: TMC Asser Press, 2011) (editors: Johan van de gronden, Erika Szyszczak, Ulla, Neergaard and Markus Krajewski).
• Legal Developments in Services of General Interest (The Hague: TMC Asser Press, 2011 forthcoming) (editors Erika Szyszczak, Jim Davies, Tarjei Bekkadel and Mads Andenas) (TMC Asser Press, 2011)
• Jim Davies, "Entrenchment of New Governance in Consumer Policy Formulation: A Platform for European Consumer Citizenship Practice?" (2009) 32 Journal of Consumer Policy 245
• Jim Davies, "Consumer Protection in a Normative Context: The Building Blocks of a Consumer Citizenship Practice" in Mel Kenney and James Devenney (eds) European Consumer Protection: Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
• Jim Davies and Erika Szyszczak, "ADR: Effective Protection of Consumer Rights?" (2010) 35.5. European Law Review 693

Public Lectures: Professor Erika Szyszczak, "Public Services: Still an Irritant for the Single Market?", March 2011

PhD Success: Jim Davies successfully defended his PhD 14 June 2010 at the University of Leicester. His thesis is titled: The European Consumer Citizen: A Coherent, Tangible and Relevant Notion of Citizenship? The Introduction provides a justification for identifying the consumer citizen as a market actor with social responsibilities. It develops the hypothesis that the economic focus of the EU has helped to develop a valid form of consumer citizenship practice and identifies that the originality in the thesis lies in its treatment of thebehaviour that constitute such a practice. It adopts a methodology that explores the development of consumer influence and justifies the conflation of aspects of the conflicting notions of citizenship and the consumer. Chapter 2 argues a case for the legitimacy of the idea of the consumer citizen through the development of the categories of the consumer found in the legislation, the case law and academic literature and considers the issues of consumer detriment. The argument makes clear that the consumer citizen is not an exclusive class of individual but rather a reference for a set ofbehaviour that define a consumer citizenship practice. Chapter 3 explores further the idea of consumer influence in policy and legislative processes through representation in governance structures and the notion of shared responsibility. It explores the idea of improving the capabilities of the more vulnerable categories of consumer through education and information as tools of empowerment. It discusses the quasi constitutional mechanisms of new governance and develops the idea of the consumer as demos. Chapter 4 addresses the membership and territorial questions associated with the notion of consumer citizenship in the context of choicebehaviour and a segmented model of the market. Chapter 5 then presents a hierarchical framework in which the enablers and barriers of the consumer citizenship practice model are defined by the normative components of consumer protection, information, capability and motivation that shape it. The model is then applied to an illustrative case study of the energy sector. At its end, the Conclusion identifies a value in the thesis that is argued to have the potential to influence the design of a new research agenda.
Jim has completed the manuscript for publication of his PhD in July 2011.