The caselaw has found healthcare systems firmly subject to Article 49, yet education systems not so. Both are important public services, and subsidised from the public purse, but in the cases decided they were organised differently. One was provided through a market-like mechanism, the other directly from the State. It is not the social importance of the service, nor the motives or character of the provider or recipient or payer that determines when Article 49 applies. It is the nature of these parties' behaviour. As States use market behaviour ever more in public services, we may therefore expect an expansion of the application of Article 49 to welfare. Many restrictions will be found, because of the essentially national nature of welfare, but many will be justified and irremovable by the Court. In the end only legislation can create cross-border markets for welfare.
Legal Issues of Economic Integration