The European Commission has adopted a revised legislative proposal, which clarifies the rules on access to and exercise of a profession when supplying services in other Member States. The rules guarantee a level-playing field among travel agents and tour operators wishing to supply their services in other Member States.

ECTAA welcomes the intention of the European Commission to facilitate trade of services within the European Union. This was the aim of a Commission legislative proposal presented in January 2004, which sought to dismantle remaining obstacles to a genuine Internal Market of services by reviewing, among other, the rules which service providers need to comply with when supplying services across borders. However, a number of concerns were voiced by some travel agents and tour operators.

ECTAA’s President, Mr. Norbert Draskovits, commented that “Our main concern is to guarantee a level-playing field for travel agents and tour operators trading within the EU. There are currently a number of Member States, which have a licensing scheme in place for the access to the profession of travel agents and tour operators. Fears were expressed that the principle of free provision of services across borders would create distortions of competition between operators subject to stringent authorizations schemes in their country, while foreign operators would be permitted to trade freely in their country without complying with those requirements.”

The revised Directive proposal presented by the Commission in April 2006[1] clarifies the rules on access to and exercise of the profession. A distinction is to be made between a supply of services on a permanent or occasional basis in another country:

·          In case of a supply of services in another country on a permanent basis, i.e. requiring an establishment in that country, the operator will have to comply with the host country’s legislation, including existing licensing requirements.

·          For a temporary supply of services, the host country must ensure free access to and exercise of the professional activity in its country, however with a number of safeguards; Member States may still impose justified requirements, such as those of public policy and security.

ECTAA considers that the revised Commission proposal strikes a good balance between the necessity of fair competition between all service providers acting on a permanent basis in a Member State and the need to allow more flexibility when supplying services on an occasional basis

[1]     http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/services/services-dir/index_en.htm