Europese Commissie roept op tot open markt voor architecten en advocaten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Monday (5 September) called upon member states to open up their markets for traditionally protected professional services, such as lawyers, architects, notaries, accountants and pharmacists.

"Professional services are a key sector of the EU economy", said competition commissioner Neelie Kroes i adding that "getting rid of anti-competitive regulatory restrictions will stimulate competition, providing consumers and businesses with better value for money, higher quality services and more choice".

Ms Kroes urged national governments to "turn political commitment into real action and tackle anti-competitive regulatory restrictions in the professions".

In line with the services directive

The plea is in line with one of the Barroso Commission's key political objectives - the proposed services directive, an EU law establishing a future EU internal market for services.

But while the Commission's proposal for a services directive tackles cross-border liberalisation and freedom of establishment between member states, this initiative tackles rules within member states, which in the Commission's view hamper competition.

In many member states, the free professions are characterised by regulations which, for example, set minimum prices or ban advertising - often drawn up by the professional organisations themselves.

In June last year, the commission fined the Belgian Architects Organisation for obliging its members - meaning all architects in Belgium as membership is obligatory - to work for no less than 12 to 14 percent of the total sum of a construction project.

Pierre Gyselinck, who works for the Flemish Architects Organisation - a branch of the Belgian one - explained to the EUobserver that the minimum price-setting was meant to safeguard quality standards.

"But since the Commission forced us to drop the minimum tariff, quality has actually not decreased", Mr Gyselinck admitted.

Naming and shaming

However, EU competition policy is decentralised, meaning that national authorities bear the main responsibility for enforcing EU competition rules.

The Commission has now urged member states to "step up" their efforts to open professional services to competition.

Three member states - Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK - are making good progress with their reforms.

The British and Dutch liberalised rules for conveyancing - opening the profession to non-lawyers - resulting in tariffs falling for consumers.

States such as France, Germany and Ireland are currently examining their policies.

The Irish Competition Authority in a recent report indicated it wishes to see an end to practices whereby professional lawyers organisations such as the Lawyers Society dictate various professional rules.

The Irish are, among a variety of measures, set to remove all restrictions on advertising for barristers and solicitors.

By contrast, the Commission also "Names and shames" seven badly-performing member states - the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Malta, Spain and Sweden - where "no reform activity" is reported.