WRITTEN QUESTION No. 2702/98 by Marie-Paule KESTELIJN- SIERENS to the Commission. Contractors
Date: 1998-09-01
Institutions: European Parliament, KESTELIJN-SIERENS
Subjects: entrepreneur, equal treatment, freedom to provide services, right of establishment

C 118/122

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

29.4.1999

Answer given by Mr de Silguy on behalf of the Commission

(6 October 1998)

Mechanisms exist in all Member States for preventing the laundering of proceeds of criminal activities via
the financial system. They are based in particular on Council Directive 91/308/EEC of 10 November 1991
on prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering (1). As things stand,
the Directive prohibits only money laundering associated with drug trafficking. That said, all Member
States treat as a criminal act money laundering resulting from a wider range of criminal activities. The
Commission is looking into how the Directive can be updated and its scope extended.

The obligations spelt out in the Directive will continue to apply in full on the switchover to the euro and
will concern the exchange of euros for national notes and coins. The Commission expects that the banks
will maintain their customary vigilance during the period leading up to the introduction of euro notes and
coins and during the exchange period so that any suspicious transaction will be detected. It is still
considering the implications of introducing the euro for the fight against money laundering, and it has
been agreed that the matter will be discussed by the contact committee set up by the Directive.

(1) OJ L 166, 28.6.1991.

(1999/C 118/150)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2702/98

by Marie-Paule Kestelijn-Sierens (ELDR) to the Commission

(1 September 1998)

Subject: Contractors

Can the government of a Member State of the European Union require a contractor resident in another
Member State to register with the official authorities before being able to exercise his profession?

Answer given by Mr Monti on behalf of the Commission

(27 October 1998)

Two different scenarios should be distinguished here. In the first, a foreign entrepreneur wishes to practise
his profession on a permanent basis in another Member State through a secondary establishment
dependent on the main establishment in his Member State of residence. This situation is covered by
Article 52 of the EC Treaty (right of establishment). Since everyone is obliged to register with the
authorities, irrespective of their nationality or place of establishment within the Community, this
requirement is not incompatible with the principle of equal treatment laid down in Article 52.

In the second scenario, an entrepreneur practises his profession temporarily in another Member State
without being established there. This situation is covered by Article 59 of the EC Treaty (freedom to
provide services), which prohibits measures constituting discriminatory or disproportionate restrictions
on that freedom. Generally speaking, regulations to the effect that all entrepreneurs must first be licensed
(or registered), whatever their place of origin, are incompatible with Article 59 of the Treaty unless there
are in the occupational field concerned compelling reasons for their existence associated with the general
interest, unless rules in the country where the service provider is established do not already serve the
general interest and unless the same result cannot be achieved through less rigorous rules.