Welfare regulation in the European Union continues to crawl forward despite salient conflicts of interests. This article addresses the fundamental puzzle of how regulatory competences may expand into the core of the welfare state and how conflicts are, eventually, managed in such processes. It analyses the EU cross-border provision of healthcare services and argues that the interplay between the Commission and the Court constitutes a powerful dynamic in generating new regulatory activities and in finding ways to set conflicts aside. The Commission draws on formulations offered by the Court in finding ways to manage conflict, for example, by requiring ‘proportionate’ national policies which establish that national obstacles to free movement principles are ‘objectively necessary’. The article concludes that law and evidence-based policy-making serve as powerful resources for the Commission in managing conflict.