The Services Directive – Opening up cross border trade in services – of particular benefit to small and medium sized businesses


 The Services Directive, was finally signed into Irish law today, and has the potential to release the untapped growth potential of services markets in Europe, by removing legal and administrative barriers to trade in the services sector.

John Whelan, chief executive of the Irish Exporters Association stated;
‘’ The Directive will be of particular benefit to small and medium sized businesses seeking to provide services within the scope of the Directive to other EU countries or to establish in other EU countries for the purposes of providing services.’’

He went on to say;
‘’Two out of every three workers in Ireland are now employed in the services sector, but many of them are focused on the home market only. With the recent shrinking of the demand for services in Ireland many of these companies have had to release employees, and more are still in a precarious position. Hence the importance of the Services Directive , as a means of opening up the services markets in each of the 27 EU member states to Irish services companies .However, most of the indigenous Irish services companies do not have the expertise to tackle foreign markets , and hence will not be able to take advantage of the benefits of the Single market for services created by this directive, unless they are given some specialist assistance . Hence, the IEA have emphasized to Minister Batt O’Keeffe T.D. , and Enterprise Ireland for a ‘’Services Export Outreach ‘’ programme to pump our indigenous services companies . Stimulus measures are still being used extensively by many of our trading partners, we need to do so also to be at the races.’’

He concluded by saying;
‘’Currently , we export €25.4 billion in services to the EU but the small and medium sized Irish owned businesses export only €1 billion of this. Arising from the measures in the Directive there is potential to increase exports into the EU by approx 50% .The opportunities are open to Irish companies small and large , and with this jobs growth , but stimulus assist measures will be required if this is to be achieved in the near term. ‘’

The Directive requires all EU countries to lift legal and administrative barriers to the establishment and provision of services from abroad. It will facilitate (i) the establishment of businesses in the services sector (for example a carpenter from Hungary wants to establish a business in Sweden, or a Spanish company that wants to set up a new retail store in its own country) (ii) the cross border provision of services (example a architect established in France who designs a house in Germany or an event organizer from Finland who wants to run an open air festival in Estonia).

The benefits of the Directive

Any service provider seeking to provide services in another Member State will have access to National Point of Single Contact (NPSC) through an online portal through which it can apply online for all authorisations to do business in the member state. In Ireland, this is available through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (DETI) special website for business at www.pointofsinglecontact.ie  
END


For further information, please contact:

John Whelan
Chief Executive
Irish Exporters Association
Mobile: 087 927 1243

 
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