ACCESS TO PROFESSIONS: COUNCIL ADOPTS NEW MEASURES

28/06/2018 Policy 1530 Views
ACCESS TO PROFESSIONS: COUNCIL ADOPTS NEW MEASURES

On 21 June 2018, the Council adopted a new directive at a meeting of the Employment, Social policy, Health and Consumer affairs Council. The Directive “will require EU member states to carry out a proportionality test before establishing new requirements for professions.”

The directive intents to improve transparency in the way some professions are regulated in the member states. In order to do that, the Council wants to “ensure that national measures are proportionate, and that they do not unduly restrict access to professional activities or create unjustified burdens in the internal market.”

In this regard, to regulate professions, member states will need to address whether “new or revised rules are justified by public interest objectives.”

The directive will be published in the Official Journal of the EU after being signed by the President of the European Parliament and the President of the Council. The text was adopted after a fierce opposition of many health professional  organisations due to the possibility to justify restrictive measures when public health is at stake (article 6).

The directive is a part of the “Services package” published on 10 January 2017, containing the following legislative proposals:

  • Proposal for a services e-card
  • Proposal for a services notification procedure
  • Proposal for a proportionality test before adoption of new regulation of professions

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