General overview

The services provided by the liberal professions play an important role in contributing to the competitiveness of the EU economy as a whole. These services are essential to both businesses and consumers and they can have knock-on effects on most other sectors of the economy. They loosely comprise occupations that require special training in the arts or sciences such as lawyers, notaries, engineers, architects, doctors and accountants. Generally, these professions are characterized by a high degree of regulation by either national governments or the relevant professional bodies. These regulations generally cover such matters as entry requirements and reserved rights, rates and billing arrangements, advertising, business structures and multi-disciplinary practices. [ read more ]