A vélemény adatlapja 

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



 believes the proposals can contribute to creating a real Single Market in services, which would also spur growth, investment and employment in regions and cities; highlights, however, the need to respect the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity;

 welcomes the new services e-card as a helpful contribution to promoting the mobility of service providers, but requests clarification about how it relates to existing schemes. Believes that the e-card can help to reduce administrative complexity and costs for cross-border service providers; SMEs, which are the backbone of regional and local economies, are particularly affected as they are the most impacted by administrative complexity when operating cross-border;

 is opposed to the approach of shifting the main responsibility for the e-card procedure to the home Member State;

 supports steps to improve the notification procedure for services as the existing procedure is ineffective;

 is concerned that the proposed Decision under Article 7 would unduly restrict the freedom of legislators at national, regional and local level; considers that this should instead be a non-binding Recommendation;

 recognises that it is desirable to ensure a more coherent EU legal framework for assessing proportionality;

 considers it important that the proposal would leave decisions on what to regulate and how to Member States and their competent bodies at regional and local level but should ensure that these decisions are evidence-based and made following a transparent and objective assessment that is applied evenly across Member States;

 welcomes the guidance for national reforms in the regulation of professions, which could help Member States to adapt their regulatory frameworks for professions with high growth and jobs potential;

 is concerned that the services e-card, notification procedure and proportionality test will impose additional administrative burdens on regional and local authorities.