SECTION I - CED ACTIVITIES

CED BOARD

SME Intergroup meeting on Liberal Professions

On 2 December 2014, CED Vice-President Marco Landi and Head of Office Nina Bernot attended a breakfast meeting of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Intergroup in the European Parliament on SMEs in Liberal Professions. CED members Peter Engel, Wolfgang Sprekels, Florian Lemor, Jörg Krainhöfner and Alfred Büttner also participated in their national capacities.

The meeting was co-hosted by the MEPs/members of the SME Intergroup Board: Othmar Karas (EPP, Austria), Maria Grapini (S&D, Romania) and Michael Theurer (ALDE, Germany). Other MEPs,  for instance Paul Rübig (EPP, Austria), Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy), Angelika Mlinar (ALDE, Austria), Ivan Stefanec (EPP, Slovakia) and Martina Anderson (GUE/NGL, UK) were also present.

CED Vice-President presented the Charter for liberal professions, co-authored by the CED. He focused on the specificities of liberal professions, the importance of public interest, the role of liberal professions in ensuring the fundamental rights of clients and patients to high quality services and treatment and finally, the need to strengthen liberal professions rather than weaken them by deregulation.

During the event, Arno Metzler of the EESC suggested to the European Commission to propose an EU directive on liberal professions – in his words this would be a framework directive based on shared principles and filled in by national laws, maintaining differences where necessary.

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