In the early days of the welfare state, certain areas of the economy were set apart from the free market philosophy with the aim of reducing the distance between the ‘dominated lebensraum (living space)’ and the ‘effective lebensraum’. Inspired by ideals which went beyond the strictly economic – enshrined in the time-honoured continental legal concept of service public – state intervention in some sectors was intensified, monopolies were created and regulation was increased. Since the Single European Act, when competition was installed as the new deity on ‘the altar of political ideas’, public service has become an obstacle to be overcome in the name of a liberalisation on which all hopes were pinned. The creation of an open market is the first step of this policy, but once barriers have been removed there remain certain requirements which the market alone is not able to meet. […]