Services Standards: Defining the Core Consumer Elements ... - ANEC

Hans-W. Micklitz
services – and probably a revised concept of the 1985 New Approach to
technical harmonisation and standards.
Parts of the new policy have already taken clear shape and have been given a
legal form, the Directive on Professional Qualifications and the Service
Directive. Other elements are still in the offing, the positioning of the safety of
services and the revised concept of the New Approach. However, despite the
lack of a clear-cut regulatory framework, the European Commission and the
Standards Bodies are heavily pushing standardisation in the field of services.
Stock-taking of the recent initiatives helps to set the picture and to prepare the
ground for the next step – the development of best practice criteria.
I. The concept behind the new policy
1. Professional qualifications
The Directive 2005/36/EC on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications 215
does not lay down European requirements on the skills which are needed to
render a specific service. Instead the Directive relies, as the title indicates on
existing national rules on professional education and training. In this respect the
Directive relies on the country of origin principle. Mutual recognition, however, is
bound to the practical experience a service provider has made in the relevant
Member State after he has completed the appropriate national education plan.
The overall purpose of Directive 2005/36/EC comes clear in Article 4 (1):
The recognition of the professional qualifications by the host country allows the
beneficiary to gain access in that Member State to the same profession as that
for which he is qualified in the home Member State and to pursue it in the host
Member State under the same conditions as its nationals.
The Directive might be understood as realisation of the somewhat softened
country of origin principle.
a) Impact on standardisation of services
As the Directive does not harmonise professional standards it leaves ample
room for standardising professional skills. Such standards might contribute to a
much clearer picture of what is behind a specific service provider.
2. The Service Directive, consumer protection and standardisation
The Service Directive has already been mentioned a number of times.
However, the context was different. It had to be demonstrated how and to what
215 OJ L 255, 30.9.2005, 22.
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