Source: European Parliament
The Commission is aware of the rulings issued by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2021 and 2022. The Court sovereignly interpreted a pre-existing legal reserve in the Spanish law giving the architects and technical architects the exclusive right to issue the building assessment reports.
The main public interest reasons used by way of explanation by the Spanish Court were related to public safety, environmental protection and building preservation.
EU Member States have the possibility to reserve certain activities to specific professions, provided that those reservations comply with the EU legislation.
Following a complaint, the Commission carried out an assessment of the situation described in that complaint. That assessment did not permit to identify a violation of EU rules.
The Commission is continuously monitoring the compliance of the Member States’ legislation with EU law using different tools. The reform recommendations for regulation in professional services published by the Commission in 2017[1] and 2021[2] covered the reserved activities of architects and engineers in Spain.
More recently, in the context of the EU semester 2023 spring package, the benefit of reducing barriers for civil engineers was stressed in the Country report[3].
- [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0820
- [2] SWD(2021) 185 — Staff Working Document accompanying the communication on taking stock of and updating the reform recommendations for regulation in professional services of 2017.
- [3] https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/c2a417af-a656-4526-bec1-74977469dcad_en?filename=SWD_2023_609_1_EN_autre_document_travail_service_part1_v4.pdf