Europese bedrijven halen uit Dienstenrichtlijn nog niet wat erin zit (en)

Lack of information and unnecessary administrative burdens are still seriously hindering cross-border trade in services, said MEPs in a report approved by the Internal Market Committee on Wednesday. The report outlines concrete proposals for Member States to improve the implementation of the Services Directive.

The implementation of the 2006 Services Directive, which aims to open up the single market to service providers in the EU and facilitate cross-border provision of commercial services, still has some way to go, say MEPs in an own-initative report by Evelyne Gebhardt (S&D i, DE).

MEPs point to the need to ensure easy access to information for businesses and to step up administrative cooperation, as areas where Member States can improve the directive's implementation.

"I acknowledge that Member States have made many efforts to implement the very complex Services Directive", said Ms Gebhardt. "However, implementation still needs to be optimised in order to reap the benefits of a well-functioning Internal Market in the service sector. Parliament as co-legislator will keep a close eye on the implementation process to ensure that this happens".

Improving Points of  Single Contact for businesses

The functioning of the Points of  Single  Contact (PSC) set up under the directive must be improved, say MEPs. PSCs should be turned into comprehensive e-Government portals, allowing procedures and formalities to be completed remotely, by electronic means and providing relevant information to service providers, including information on labour and tax law as well as procedures related to VAT and social security registration.

All information given by the PSCs should also be available in languages other than the national language. In particular, the PSCs should take into consideration the languages of neighbouring countries.

MEPs regret that the the PSCs and cross-border provision of service opportunities are not yet widely known by service providers and call on the Commission and Member States to launch information and training campaigns as soon as possible and to also to improve the visibility and recognisability of the "eu-go" domain which brings together all PSC websites.

Better training for administrative cooperation

The report urges Member States to improve training of civil servants with a view to stepping up administrative cooperation and facilitating cross-border provision of services. It also underlines the beneficial impact of the internal market information system (an electronic tool for cooperation between national and regional administrations).

Scope of the directive

MEPs note the discussion in some Member States on services excluded from the scope of the Directive because of their specific nature (such as the health services or transport) and suggest that these services may require a specific framework which could be included in forthcoming work on the Single Market Act.

Next steps   

On Thursday, the day after the Internal Market Committee voted on the own-initiative report by Ms Gebhardt, Commissioner Barnier i presented a communication "Towards a better functioning Single Market for Services - building on the results of the mutual evaluation process of  Service Directive" also dealing with Member States' transposition of the directive. The Commission also underlines the vital importance of properly functioning Points of Single Contact and the benefits to be gained from improving implementation in the Member States.

Parliament as a whole will be asked to endorse Ms Gebhardt's own-initiative report at the February session in Strasbourg.