Commission welcomes Member States’ support to boost services sector

The Commission welcomes today’s agreement by Member States on two legislative proposals tabled by the Commission as recently as January 2017 as part of a wider package of measures to give a fresh boost to the services sector. Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said: “I welcome the speedy progress made in Council and look forward to the discussions in the European Parliament. We live in a services economy, and our latest country-specific recommendations show again that Member States stand to gain from a flourishing services sector. With these proposals we help Member States design future regulation in a way that allows services providers to blossom, whether they want to stay at home or do business in another EU country.” The Council has reached an agreement on two draft Directives: the so-called “proportionality test” for new national regulation on professional services and the “notification procedure” for new rules on services. The third legislative proposal of the services package, the Services E-Card, aims to help services providers navigate administrative formalities. For more information on the proposals for “A services economy that works for Europeans”, see MEMO/17/11.