Bid to end legal qualifications dispute

Date: 18/04/1996

By Rory Watson

THE long-running campaign to ensure lawyers trained in one EU member state can practise permanently in another is set to take a further step towards achieving its objective later this month.

After intensive soundings within the legal profession, which specifically requested EU-wide measures in this area, the European Parliament's legal affairs committee aims to finalise its position on the Commission's proposal for new legislation on the mutual recognition of legal qualifications next week.

Its recommendations will then be considered by the full Parliament at a plenary session before the summer recess.

The rapporteur, French Christian Democrat and Parliament Vice-President Nicole Fontaine, has attempted to steer a middle course through the conflicting views of the various legal professions over how to plug the gap in existing measures.

Lawyers qualified in one member state may, at the moment, provide their services on a temporary basis under their own national title in another EU country. They may also requalify as a full member of the legal profession in another Union member state after taking an aptitude test or undergoing a period of adaptation.

The goal of the new legislation is to allow a lawyer to work permanently under his or her own national title elsewhere in the EU without having to requalify.

A variety of schemes now operate throughout the Union, with Scandinavia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK generally implementing a more open policy, while France and Spain apply more restrictive measures.

In her report, Fontaine adopts a more liberal approach than the Commission, which proposed that the facility to use national titles in another member state should run for just five years. After that time, any lawyer who did not wish to become a member of the host country's legal profession would have to stop practising there. The Parliament is expected to support Fontaine's argument that no time-limit should be applied.

The draft legislation is also designed to allow lawyers who have worked regularly in another EU member state to apply for membership of that country's own legal profession and to practise under its title.

Fontaine insists that an assessment, rather than an aptitude test, should be used to determine whether the application should be accepted.

The compromise is designed to ensure satisfactory standards are met when lawyers join a host country's legal profession, while preventing the application of tests which some believe are used as a way of protecting the local market.

MEPs will also have to determine whether any limits should be introduced on the type of law which lawyers qualified in one country may practise in another.