Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2001:700
Date: 2001-12-13
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Right of establishment;Freedom to provide services;Free movement of workers
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Austria

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Freedom to 
provide services — Doctors — Restricted activities — Absence of Community har­
monisation — Definition by the Member States — Inclusion of the activity of lay 
health practitioner (Heilpraktiker) — Whether permissible 
(Arts 52 and 59 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Arts 43 EC and 49 EC)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-294/00 
2. Freedom of movement for persons — Freedom of establishment — Freedom to 
provide services — Doctors — Restricted activities — Absence of Community har­
monisation — Definition by the Member States — Inclusion of the activity of lay 
health practitioner (Heilpraktiker) — National legislation prohibiting the organisation 
of training in that activity and the advertising of such training — Whether permis­
sible — Conditions 
(Arts 52 and 59 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment Arts 43 EC and 49 EC)) 
1. No provision of Community law, as it 
presently stands, precludes a Member 
State from restricting the exercise of an 
activity such as that of a Heilpraktiker 
(lay medical practitioner) within the 
meaning of the German legislation to 
holders of a doctor's qualification. 
The exercise of that activity is not 
regulated by any measure adopted at 
Community level. In the absence of 
harmonisation of a profession, 
Member States remain, in principle, 
competent to define the exercise of that 
profession but must, when exercising 
their powers in that area, respect the 
basic freedoms guaranteed by the 
Treaty. 
In that regard, although the legislation 
of a Member State which prohibits 
altogether the exercise in its territory of 
the profession of Heilpraktiker, recog­
nised in another Member State, con­
stitutes a restriction of the exercise of 
the freedom of establishment and the 
freedom to provide services, 
Articles 52 and 59 of the Treaty (now, 
after amendment, Articles 43 EC and 
49 EC) do not preclude such legis­
lation, since the prohibition applies 
regardless of the nationality and the 
Member State of establishment of the 
persons at which it is directed, the 
protection of public health is one of 
the reasons cited in Article 56(1) of the 
EC Treaty (now, after amendment, 
Article 46(1) EC) as capable of justify­
ing restrictions on the freedom of 
establishment and the freedom to pro­
vide services, the decision of a Member 
State to restrict to a group of profes­
sionals with specific qualifications, 
such as qualified doctors, the right to 
carry out medical diagnoses and pre­
scribe treatments for illness or to 
alleviate physical or mental disorders 
may be considered to be a suitable 
means of achieving the objective of 
safeguarding public health and the 
national legislation does not go beyond 
what is necessary to achieve the aim of 
safeguarding public health. 
(see paras 26, 37, 40-43, 50-51, 
operative part 1) 
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GRÄBNER 
2. Articles 52 and 59 of the EC Treaty 
(now, after amendment, Articles 43 EC 
and 49 EC) do not preclude 
—-a Member State which prohibits in 
its territory the exercise of the 
activity of a 'Heilpraktiker' (lay 
medical practitioner) within the 
meaning of the German legislation 
by persons other than those with a 
doctor's qualification from likewise 
prohibiting the organisation in its 
territory of training in that activity 
by unauthorised institutions, pro­
vided that that prohibition is applied 
in such a way that it covers only 
training of a kind liable to create 
confusion in the minds of the public 
as to whether the profession of 
Heilpraktiker may lawfully be exer­
cised in the territory of the Member 
State in which the training is to take 
place; 
— a Member State which prohibits in 
its territory the exercise of the 
activity of a Heilpraktiker by per­
sons other than those with a doctor's 
qualification and prohibits training 
in that activity from likewise pro­
hibiting the advertising of such 
training offered in its territory if 
that advertising concerns training of 
a kind which is prohibited in that 
Member State in accordance with 
the Treaty. 
However, Article 59 of the Treaty pre­
cludes a Member State which prohibits 
in its territory the exercise of the 
profession of Heilpraktiker and train­
ing in the activity of a Heilpraktiker 
from likewise prohibiting the advertis­
ing of such training offered in a dif­
ferent Member State, if that advertising 
states where the training is to take 
place and mentions the fact that the 
profession of Heilpraktiker may not be 
exercised in the first Member State. 
(see para. 70, operative part 2) 
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