The European Commission has drawn our attention to the fact that the European Commissioner Jyrki Katainen (Employment, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness) will lead the presentation of a “legislative package on services” on 13 December next. Our businesses will be affected by these measures as part of the European Strategy for the Single Market.
Information will be provided on the following:
- The Services Card (formerly the Services Passport) that will facilitate the freedom to provide and receive cross-border services ; its introduction will complement the European Professional Card, which ensures the recognition of professional qualifications from one Member State to another.
- The “mutual evaluation exercise”, or proportionality test, which will allow European States to exhaustively evaluate whether or not the existing or draft regulation of professions is proportionate. This evaluation method is part of the analytical framework for Member States to use when reviewing existing regulations or proposing additional ones that is due to be presented by the European Commission soon.
- Proposals for specific legislative action to address regulatory barriers to improve access to professions.
Several declarations will be drafted, starting with the Competitiveness Council on 28 November next, during which the European Ministers will report on how the Strategy for the Single Market has been put into practice since its publication in October 2015.
In light of these upcoming deadlines, the Commission will be pleased to exchange views with us on these topics in the coming weeks and share our prior analysis on action possibilities.