On Thursday 5 April, the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU told EUROPE that, during its term of office, it wished to continue with legislative work on the proposal for a services e-card.
“The Council’s competent body continues the examination of the e-card file with a view to make as much as possible progress on it”, the presidency confirmed, saying that the European Parliament’s rejection of the proposal within the committee on the internal market and consumer protection (IMCO) (see EUROPE 11986) was not the end of the legislative process.
A working group is due to meet on 20 April to take stock of the matter, another source says with seemingly less optimism regarding the future of the legislative proposal and recalling that several national delegations of western Europe, such as France and Germany, are not over enthusiastic (see EUROPE 11963). This is also the case, however, in eastern European countries such as Romania. Among other things, the former fear a return to the country of origin principle while the latter fear unwieldy red tape.
It is said that Austria is not in favour of the proposal either, two European sources tell us. Austria is to take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU during the second half of 2018, leaving one to anticipate little progress on the text.
The services e-card had been presented by the European Commission in January 2017 as part of a series of measures (see EUROPE 11700). Essentially, the card aims to simplify administrative procedures for service providers wanting to practice their activity in a member state other than the one in which they are established, by transferring the administrative burden on entrepreneurs to public national administrations. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)