Single market – public consultation on services passport
The European Commission published a public consultation on the proposal to introduce a services passport 
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Single market and Service directive
This consultation stems from the Single Market Strategy which announced several actions to further develop the Single Market for services, in particular:
- An initiative introducing a Services Passport for key economic sectors
- An action to address regulatory barriers for key business services and for construction services
- An action on professional indemnity insurance requirements for business and construction service providers.
The Service directive, in line with the TFEU, established a different regime for providers established in other Member States and providing services exclusively on a cross-border basis. Since these providers are already subject to the legislation of their home Member State, the Services Directive obliged Member States to ensure that cross-border providers that want to provide services in their territory were only subject to requirements justified by the protection of public policy, public security, public health and the protection of the environment to the extent that these requirements were proportionate.
However, 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.
The services passport is a key to be offered to service providers in their first step to start operating in another Member States. It aims to help SMEs in key services sectors to expand cross border.
Public consultation
The aim of the 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.
The results of this consultation will provide invaluable input for the Commission when preparing any future policy proposals and assessing the impact of different policy options.
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