Quality professional services are crucial for preserving the European economic and social model, say S&Ds
Date
Sections
Strasbourg, 18 January 2018
Today the European Parliament is set to approve an S&D report on professional qualifications. Regulated professions represent one fifth of the labour force in the EU and cover many crucial sectors such as health and social services, transport, tourism and education.
S&D Group spokesperson for the internal market and author of the report on professional qualifications, Nicola Danti MEP, said:
“Professions play a crucial role in the European economy. Today, there are over 5.500 regulated professions in the EU covering one fifth of the labour force. A fair and effective regulation of professions and professional services is crucial both for safeguarding the public interest, such as health or environmental protection, and for ensuring labour mobility in the Single Market. Neither overregulation, which would hamper fair competition and throttle much needed innovation capacity for dealing with digitisation and globalisation, nor deregulation, which would jeopardise public services such as health and education, would be a promising strategy for the future.
“In my report, we highlight that is crucial to reach a good balance in the national regulatory frameworks between ensuring competitiveness, where it is needed, and safeguarding the public interest, by putting forward a regulation that is proportionate, non-discriminatory and transparent. Ensuring the quality of professional services is essential for preserving the European economic and social model.”
Note to the editor:
The Danti report is a report on the implementation of the 2005 Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications, which applies to all regulated professions with some exceptions like notaries. In the absence of harmonisation at the EU level, professions in the EU are regulated at member state level. To facilitate free movement, the directive sets rules for the automatic recognition of professional qualifications, an automatic recognition system of professional experience, as well as the cross-border provision of services. The 2005 Directive was revised in 2013, bringing some additional requirements for member states.
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