Brussels, 03/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - A public consultation launched by the European Commission on Tuesday 3 May will be focusing on the "services passport" and the barriers to cross-border expansion of commercial services and the construction industry, as well as the existing obligations on insurance for these two activities.
The consultation therefore includes more than 100 different questions based on service providers in general and more specifically, commercial services, particularly from the point of view of the providers, followed by that of the customers themselves. The same questions then more specifically focus on the construction sector and the insurance questions involved in these activities. One section focuses exclusively on the national authorities in this connection and the final section focuses on the question of what action should be taken in the future.
Services constitute a crucial part of the Single Market Strategy (see EUROPE 11417). In addition to strengthening implementation of existing European legislation, one key area of action envisaged by the Commission is the introduction of a "services passport" (see EUROPE 11420), the document published by the national authorities and containing conditions for accessing national markets for services providers from other member states. As pointed out by the Commission for the Internal Market, Elzbieta Bienkowska, the objective is to facilitate access for service providers to the markets of the member states and who are often discouraged by the multiplicity of different national legislations.
During the launch of the Strategy, the Commission provided assurances that it would not reopen the dossier on the services directive, for which the transposition of this European legislation by member states has left a lot to be desired. Lastly, the European Court of Auditors has criticised the Commission for its lacklustre approach in the implementation of the Services directive (2006/123/EC) (see EUROPE 11511).
Respondents have until 26 July 2016 to respond to the consultation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)