The European Commission has recently launched a public consultation on the proposal to introduce a services passport and address regulatory barriers in the construction and business services sectors, and on possible action to address barriers in the insurance sector.

This consultation stems from the Single Market Strategy which announced several actions to further develop the Single Market for services, in particular:

1.An initiative introducing a Services Passport for key economic sectors
2.An action to address regulatory barriers for key business services and for construction services
3.An action on professional indemnity insurance requirements for business and construction service providers.

Despite work on the implementation of the Services Directive, a number of requirements maintained by Member States still create barriers for the provision of services in other Member States. These seem to concern administrative requirements and, in some cases, regulatory requirements.

As a result, cross-border investment and trade of services has been rather limited for a few particular sectors, which, paradoxically have high cross-border integration potential: business services (in particular architectural, engineering and accountancy services) and construction services.

The aim of this consultation is to seek the views of stakeholders on the effect on the ground of these administrative and regulatory obstacles, as well as on different policy options that could be pursued to address them, including their potential impact.

This consultation will remain accessible until 26 July 2016.

For more information, click here.