EC urges greater service harmonisation:
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
A great deal remains to be done [to harmonise the EU's internal products and services market] where technically complex products or products that can cause safety and health problems are concerned." This is the main conclusion of the European Commission's second two-yearly report on mutual recognition, published yesterday (July 2002). In the field of services, a strategy of increased mutual recognition should remedy the "pointless and often contradictory superposition of rules, which hamper cross-border trade and stifles innovation", says the Commission. It has announced plans to adopt a communication to the member states, describing the rights and obligations of the parties concerned in cases where the principle of mutual recognition applies. Member states are allowed to depart from this principle only in response to "overriding requirements of general public importance", such as in areas of public health.