This directive is crucial for the completion of the internal market, since it has huge potential for delivering benefits to consumers and SMEs. The Services Directive ( Directive 2006/123/EC) strengthens the freedom to provide services within the EU. Services Directive – towards completing the internal market Exceptions enable Member States to exclude the production of or trade in war material (Article 346(1)(b) TFEU) and to retain rules for non-nationals in respect of public policy, public security or public health (Article 52(1)). Furthermore, a whole profession can be excluded only if its entire activity is dedicated to the exercise of official authority, or if the part that is dedicated to the exercise of public authority is inseparable from the rest.
This exclusion is, however, limited by a restrictive interpretation: exclusions can cover only those specific activities and functions which imply the exercise of authority. Under the TFEU, activities connected with the exercise of official authority are excluded from freedom of establishment and provision of services (Article 51 TFEU). The person providing a ‘service’ may, in order to do so, temporarily pursue their activity in the Member State where the service is provided, under the same conditions as are imposed by that Member State on its own nationals. The right of establishment includes the right to take up and pursue activities as a self-employed person, and to set up and manage undertakings, for a permanent activity of a stable and continuous nature, under the same conditions as those laid down by the law of the Member State concerned regarding establishment for its own nationals.įreedom to provide services applies to all services normally provided for remuneration, insofar as they are not governed by the provisions relating to the freedom of movement of goods, capital and persons. This implies eliminating discrimination on the grounds of nationality and, if these freedoms are to be used effectively, the adoption of measures to make it easier to exercise them, including the harmonisation of national access rules or their mutual recognition ( 2.1.6).
Self-employed persons and professionals or legal persons within the meaning of Article 54 TFEU who are legally operating in one Member State may: (i) carry out an economic activity in a stable and continuous way in another Member State (freedom of establishment: Article 49 TFEU) or (ii) offer and provide their services in other Member States on a temporary basis while remaining in their country of origin (freedom to provide services: Article 56 TFEU). Legal basisĪrticles 26 (internal market), 49 to 55 (establishment) and 56 to 62 (services) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). A European Parliament resolution on tackling non-tariff and non-tax barriers in the single market, adopted in plenary in February 2022, spells out how the economic recovery from COVID-19 should be carried out in order to mitigate the negative effects on the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services most effectively. Yet, obstacles to these freedoms remain and the COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges altogether.
Freedom tax service full#
Expectations concerning the full implementation of the Services Directive are high, as the (full) freedom to provide services is of crucial importance for the completion of the internal market. The freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services guarantee the mobility of businesses and professionals within the EU.
0 kommentar(er)
