Government publishes draft Regulations on pan-EU services

The Government has consulted on how to implement the Directive and has now published its proposed Regulations.

The Directive and the Regulations aim to help facilitate cross border trade in services by banning restrictions on services provided from another EU member state, and govern what information must be provided by UK regulators to service providers and to customers of those service providers.

The Regulations and the Government's Transposition Note outline that it is not yet clear whether or not UK law needs to change to accommodate the Directive's demands about where action should be taken.

The Directive says that countries should not stop themselves from taking action or enforcement measures against service providers just because the service was provided in another EU country or any damage took place there.

"The Government will consider whether changes to UK legislation are necessary to implement this regulation once a common approach has been agreed with other Member States," said its draft Transposition Note.

The Government said that "these regulations do what is necessary to implement the Directive, including making consequential changes to some domestic legislation to ensure its coherence in the area to which they apply".

It said, though, that the Regulations offer more protection in a handful of areas. One of these is that it says that the UK will recognise the professional liability insurance of companies from other EU member states, even if they are only temporarily operating in the UK. The Directive demands only that that be extended to those providers establishing in the UK.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) is operating a consultation on the proposed Regulations and invites responses by 9th June. The Government hopes to gain Parliamentary approval for the Regulations in summer so that they can be implemented before the EU's deadline of 28th December this year.