The European Commission (EC) is preparing to launch a directive that will force European Union (EU) members to remove legal barriers to the practice and use of professional services.

The move is part of the EC's pledge to create a single services market within the EU by 2010, a goal the EC claims has been blocked by national legal and regulatory barriers to free movements of services and trade.

The internal markets commissioner Frits Bolkestein announced in a report published on 31 July that "economic growth is essentially driven by services [and] Europe pays the price for [these] restrictions". However, the attempt to build a broad-brush directive liberalising professional services has been met with disbelief from the legal
profession.

The demand for a services directive follows years of attempts to build a common takeover code, insolvency law and unified contract law in the EU – all of which are far from completion.

In addition, a number of EU countries have still to implement the EC's Rights of Establishment Directive, which allows equal practice rights under home title for lawyers, two years after its launch deadline.

A spokeswoman for the Council for the Bar's and Law Societies of Europe said it would be meeting the EC in September to discuss Bolkestein's proposals.