asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress that has been made with regard to the rights of doctors, lawyers, architects, and so on, since the reply of 12th July, 1973.
240.
Written Answers. - Recognition of Qualifications.
237.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if, following the ruling of the Court of Justice in Luxembourg on 3rd December, 1974, the services of auditors and architects will be accepted within any of the nine countries; and, if such persons are refused permission to provide these services in states other than their own, if they will have the right of appeal to court in the light of Articles 59 and 60 of the Treaty of Rome.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 237 and 240 together.
The position in July, 1973 was that no directives had been adopted by the European Communities to provide for the rights of establishment and freedom to provide services in the member states. Since then, there have been a number of important developments.
Two significant judgments have been delivered by the Court of Justice. The first of these judgments was delivered on 21 st June, 1974 in the Reyners case (case No. 2/74), when the court ruled that Article 52 of the EEC Treaty concerning right of establishment is a directly applicable provision. The second judgment of importance was that delivered on 3rd December, 1974 in Case No. 33/74 known as the van Binsbergen case. This case concerned the applicability of Articles 59 and 60 of the EEC Treaty. Articles 59 of the treaty provides that restrictions be progressively abolished during the transitional period in respect of nationals of member states who are established in a state of the Community other than that of the person for whom the services are intended. Article 60 states that a person providing a service may temporarily pursue his activity in the state where the service is provided under the same conditions as are imposed by the state on its own nationals. The Court of Justice in its judgment ruled that Articles 59 and 60 of the EEC Treaty have direct effect and therefore can be relied on before national courts. This is to say that beneficiaries under Articles 59 and 60 have the right of appeal to court if governments in the member states do not implement the provisions of these articles.
It follows from the Reyners and van Binsbergen judgments that any Community provisions which relate exclusively to the abolition of discrimination on grounds of nationality have become superfluous. Community action is still required, however, to secure the mutual recognition of qualifications among member states. The Commission and member states are working on a number of draft directives concerning mutual recognition of qualifications in the various professions. With regard to the specific professions mentioned by the Deputy, the present situation is that the Commission is preparing draft directives on mutual recognition of auditors' qualifications; it has forwarded draft directives relating to qualifications of architects and lawyers which are currently under discussion in the appropriate Council working group. Most important, two directives concerning mutual recognition of doctors' qualifications were approved by the Council at its meeting on 10/11th February, 1975 and were formally adopted on 16th June, 1975.