For an imaginary review, we have been looking at building blocks of the European internal market (single market) at mid-term. The blog entry Services in the internal market strategy prepared the way for the Services Package launched by the European Commission in January 2017.
The press materials about this major element serve as your short cut or executive summary, before we embark on the scenic route.
Services Package launched
On 10 January 2017 the European Commission launched A services economy that works for Europeans IP/17/23:
The proposed measures aim to make it easier for services providers to navigate administrative formalities, and to help Member States identify overly burdensome or outdated requirements on professionals operating domestically or across borders. Rather than amending existing EU rules in the area of services, the Commission focuses on ensuring they are applied better, as evidence shows that implementing them to their full potential would provide a significant boost to the EU economy.
The four concrete initiatives, briefly explained, were:
- A new European Services e-card
- A proportionality assessment of national rules on professional services
- Guidance for national reforms in regulation of professions
- Improved notification of draft national laws on services
The press release was accompanied by the customary background memo, with 38 hypothetical questions and answers, both on background and individual proposals, on how to make the rules and administrative practices of the EU member states less incompatible, MEMO/17/11, with a summary of the scope of services targeted (or not) by the Services Package:
The Services Directive applies to important services sectors such as business services, construction and retail services. It does not apply i.a. to financial services, healthcare services, public social services, electronic communications services and networks, and transport services. These sectors and services may be subject to sector-specific legislation and in any event to the overall freedoms enshrined in the Treaty.
Here are links to the four individual parts of the Services Package 2017, each page (some of them somewhat truncated) with links to various documents for further study:
This concludes the short cut or the executive summary to the 2017 Services Package. I am going to send the postcards from the scenic route from my Finnish blog Eurooppaoikeus and my Swedish blog Grahnblawg.
Ralf Grahn
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Due deluge of spam comments no more comments are accepted.
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.