Directive On Services in The Internal Market - Approval and Implementation

Approval and Implementation

The Directive, after being substantially amended from the original proposal, was adopted on 12 December 2006 by the Council and the European Parliament, and published on the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 December 2006 as the Directive 2006/123/EC. Therefore the Directive on services in the internal market should have been completely implemented by the Member States within the 28th December 2009.

Although the final version did not include the "country of origin principle", the Directive instead reminded Member States of the principle of free movement, while accepting inroads when free movement collides with other public interests. However, before making such inroads, authorities have to verify and recognize any protection already provided in the country of origin - under the mutual recognition principle, they need to take into account what takes place in other countries before proceeding.