Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-17-Speech-4-008"

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"Mr President, I would like to thank the Members of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection for raising these important questions. Before responding to the individual questions, let me start with an overview. The objective of the Professional Qualifications Directive is to facilitate the free movement of our citizens in the internal market. Two years after the end of the transposition period, transposition is complete in 22 Member States, and four Member States will hopefully deliver by the end of the year. At this stage I am, however, concerned about Greece, from which we have not received any transposition measure yet. Let me now turn to the first question. The transposition has constituted a challenge for Member States mainly because it affects more than 800 different professions. These professions have often even been regulated in federal or regional laws. However, this cannot be an excuse for any delays, and the Court of Justice has not accepted such delays in six judgments so far. Concerning the second question, the main problems relate to the health professions and architects, where a higher degree of harmonisation of training requirements at European level is in place. Problems also occur in professions with higher levels of cross-border mobility of workers such as teachers or tourist guides. On the third question, the priority of the Commission is to ensure correct and consistent implementation of the directive. To this end, we have developed a code of conduct on administrative practices and a user guide addressed to citizens, which will also promote more consistency. As to the obstacles which Solvit identified, we are fully aware of problems on the ground, such as delays occurring in the recognition procedure, lack of response from the national competent authorities, unsubstantiated decisions, lost files, etc. Sometimes, erroneous information is even given to migrants and they are invited to follow wrong procedures. However, the Solvit network has proven to be effective in solving many of these problems. But there is not only Solvit. National contact points are now in place in all Member States to inform and assist citizens, and the Commission expects them to be even more active in the future. Moreover, the Internal Market Information System has also provided a medium for supporting more than 1 200 information exchanges for many of the regulated professions this year. This has brought about enhancements in day-to-day administrative cooperation between Member States. Finally, on the last question, the Commission is not in a position to assess whether there is a need for reform at the moment. This will be done during an ex post evaluation exercise foreseen by the directive. Our intention is certainly to respect the timetable set in the directive. It will be up to the next Commission to decide how to take this forward."@en1
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