Professional Qualifications Directive

Briefing 31-08-2017

On 11 May 2017, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament authorised its Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) to draw up a report on the implementation of Directive 2005/36/EC regarding regulation and the need for reform in professional services. The timetable envisaged for the preparation of this report was then adapted to the one for the report on the legislative proposal for a proportionality test before adoption of new regulation of professions, also being dealt with by IMCO (rapporteur: Andreas Schwab, EPP, Germany). Due to the limited time consequently available for conducting research on this dossier, this short briefing paper – rather than a full European Implementation Assessment, as is the usual procedure in the case of implementation reports – is hereby provided to the IMCO Members. The scope of this 'Implementation in Action' briefing, covering the history of EU regulation of professions, application of Article 59 of the Professional Qualifications Directive, and the restrictiveness indicator used by the European Commission, was agreed with the IMCO committee secretariat following consultation with the office of the rapporteur (Nicola Danti, S&D, Italy).