CEPLIS TELEGRAM The European Council of the Liberal Professions Coudenberg 70 B-1000 Brussels Tel : +32.2.511.44.39 - Fax : +32.2.511 01 24 E-mail:
[email protected] www.ceplis.org Date: 20/10/2009
Pages: 5
N°17/09
This issue’s contents: - EurelPro Conference in Brussels “Liberal Professions in EuropeRetirement, Welfare and Solidarity” - The Competitiveness Council has adopted conclusions aiming at improving the effective implementation of the “Services” Directive and at simplifying the business environment of micro-enterprises - News from our members
EurelPro Conference in Brussels “Liberal Professions in Europe- Retirement, Welfare and Solidarity” The 5th of October 2009, the European Association of Retirement Institutions of the Liberal Professions (EurelPro - It is interesting to note that EurelPro’s full name has a French, German and Italian version but not an English one. The translation is ours!) held its first meeting in the premises of the Solvay Library in Brussels. EurelPro was established in 2008 by the French, German and Italian pension funds. With the exception of the “Bundeskomitee Freie Berufe ÖstereichsWohlfahrtseinrichtungen” from Austria, no other national pension fund of our sector has joined EurelPro up to now.
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The conference was divided into four panels dealing with retirement and pension schemes for the liberal professions within the European Union. The subjects were introduced by a key note presentation from Mr. Fritz von Nordheim Nielsen, officer of the European Commission’s DG EMPL, on the “European framework on pensions”. The first panel was dedicated to the subject: “Retirement & Solidarity”. Dr. Ulrich Kirchhoff, President of “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsständischer Versorgungseinrichtungen” (ABV) and Mr. Pierre-Maxime Duminil, Director of “Caisse d’Allocation Vieillesse des Agents généraux et des Mandataires non salariés de l’Assurance et de la Capitalisation” (CAVAMAC) and Technical Committee Member of EurelPro, have insisted on the fact that finding equilibrium between the different structures of pension funds is vital in order to reduce the demographic gap effects. The second panel discussed the “Draft Directive of the European Commission on the Application of the Principle of Equal Treatment between self-employed men and women” (http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2008:0636:FIN:EN:PDF ). Mr. Karl-August Beck, director of ABV, Mr. Jacques Escourrou, President of the “Caisse Nationale d’Assurance Vieillesse des Professions Libérales” (CNAVPL), Mr. Filipo Bove from the “Associazione degli Enti Previdenziali Privati” (Adepp) and Mr. Peter Hartmann, Director of ABV, have stressed that the European Commission, through Article 61 of this proposal, enters a field covered by the subsidiary principle and this could be potentiallyharmful to liberal profession pensions schemes. The third panel concentrated on the “Free movement of liberal professionsThe Coordinating Regulation of Social Security Schemes”. Mr. Prossliner, Secretary General of Eurelpro, Mr. Pastore, Vice-President of AdEPP, Mr. Wistleitner, Director of “the Austrian Federal Chamber of Welfare Institutions of Architects and Engineers” and Mr. Not, legal Director of the “Caisse Nationale des Barreaux Français” have emphasized the differences of mobility between liberal professions within the EU and the differences of interpretation between Member States concerning these Regulations. The fourth panel dealt with “Liberalization vs Subsidiarity”. Dr. Franz Terwey, President of the “European Social Insurance Platform” (ESIP) gave a presentation of his organization and underlined the importance for the EU to regulate social security systems. Finally, Mr. Maurizio de Tilla, President of AdEPP, EURELPRO, and “Organismo Unitario dell’Avvocatura Italiana” (OUA) concluded the Conference by saying that in order to preserve the Retirement Schemes of the Liberal Professions, their retirement and insurance funds have to do their own lobbying at the Community level rather than letting this task to professional regulatory bodies or professional associations.
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CEPLIS was invited to this conference because the issues related to retirement and pension funds are indeed of concern for all of our members. The competence for regulating pension funds is still in the hands of the EU Member States, but measures taken at the Union level in other fields can strongly influence decisions related to funded pension schemes. We found the discussions to be interesting but limited to the sole perspective of the four countries represented within Eurelpro. At the same time Mr. De Tilla’s conclusions are highly debatable. The Executive Board is going to discuss the outcomes of this conference and the issue of pension schemes for professions in its next meeting scheduled for the 3rd of this coming November.
The Competitiveness Council has adopted conclusions aiming at improving the effective implementation of the “Services” Directive and at simplifying the business environment of micro-enterprises As you already know (CEPLIS Telegram n°16/09), the Competitiveness Council of the European Union held a meeting on the 24th & 25th of September on the state of implementation of the “Services” Directive and on the issue of harmonisation of final accounts for small firms. The conclusions of the Council were the following.
The state of implementation of the “Services” Directive in the Member States: The Ministers present during the meeting of the Competitiveness Council have reaffirmed the importance of respecting the deadline of the 28th of December 2009 for the integration of the Directive in the national legislation of the Member States. The Ministers have discussed on the basis of a background note and a questionnaire published by the Swedish Presidency of the European Council in early September 2009 (http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/09/st12/st12930.en09.pdf ). After the debate, the Council has underlined the efforts of the Member States towards full implementation but it has emphasised the fact that all EU countries must bring into force the laws, the regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive. The Competitiveness Council has concluded by stressing the importance of a timely implementation as a prerequisite for businesses and consumers to take full advantage of the opportunities of a truly integrated Single Market.
The simplification of business environment for micro-enterprises: In public deliberation, the Competitiveness Council has debated without however reaching a conclusion for the moment on a draft Directive aimed at simplifying the business environment and more specifically, the financial reporting requirements. The debate focused on two main issues: - the significance of the proposed Directive in a broader context of the simplification process of the 4th and 7th company law Directives (also known as “Accounting directives” http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/accounting/sme_accounting/legal_pr oposals_en.htm ). CEPLIS Telegram N° 17/09 of 20/10/2009
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the optional nature of the proposal.
The European Commission has in fact presented in February 2009 a proposal for amending the directive 78/660/EEC on the annual accounts of certain kind of firms. The proposed directive (http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/09/st07/st07229- re01.en09.pdf ) would enable member states to exclude very small enterprises from the scope of the 4th company law directive and thus exempt them from its administrative and accounting requirements. The Parliament has not yet examined the proposal which falls under the legislative codecision procedure.
News from our members
The 39th annual General Assembly of The Malta Federation of Professional Associations (MFPA), one of our active Members, has renewed the mandate of Mr. Benjamin Rizzo at the head of the organization for a 2 year term the 29th of last September. Mr. Rizzo has served as President of the Malta Institute of Accountants (FIA) from 2001 to 2003. He is a Fellow Member of this Institute since 1977. He represents the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants UK (CIMA) in Malta for 27 years now and is a Member of this organization since 1978. He has also been a Member of the Council of the Malta Institute of Accountants for the last eighteen years, till 2008.
At the elections of September, 29 the following persons were elected to the Executive Council of MFPA: Ms. Mary Anne Ciappara from the Malta Chamber of Pharmacists (MCOP) and Ing. Helga Pizzuto from the Chamber of Engineers (CoE) as Vice Presidents, Ms. Gertrude A. Buttigieg from the Association of Speech Language Pathologists (ASLP) as Hon. Secretary and Dr. Paula Vassallo from the Dental Association of Malta (DAM) as Hon. Treasurer. For further information please go to: http://www.mfpa.org.mt
The Liaison Committee of Podiatrists of the EU (CLPUE), one of our Active Members, held its General Assembly meeting in Toronto from the 28-29 July 2009. At this occasion CLPUE members adopted unanimously a Code of Conduct for European Podiatrists and a European Platform of Podiatrists. The Code of Conduct in question includes all the Common Values of the Liberal Professions in the European Union : http://www.ceplis.org/en/values.php
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This assembly was held under the aegis of the International Federation of Podiatrists (IFP), the President of which Mr. Serge Coimbra, current President of CLPUE and a former Member of CEPLIS’s Executive Board, was congratulated for his exemplary work at the head of CLPUE. CEPLIS would like also to take this opportunity to note the personal investment of Mr. Coimbra in all issues common to the liberal professions at the EU level. For further information on this event please go to: http://www.clpue.org
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