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| ACE calls for architectural services to be excluded from the scope of the Services Directive The First Reading of the European Parliament on the Services Directive has resulted in the adoption of a compromise text that shows serious anomalies due to its attempt to please all shades of political opinion. It has also alienated several sectors including the architectural services sector.The Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE) therefore calls for architectural services to be entirely excluded from the scope of the Directive. The ACE is struck by the large number of exclusions of various services sectors and professions from the scope of the Directive. These exclusions have generally been justified on the basis of “overriding reasons relating to the public interest” that include matters such as consumer protection, public security, public health and the environment. The architectural profession has been generally supportive of the proposed Directive as it believes in the benefits that cross-border and cross-cultural exchanges can bring to the European Project. However, if all sorts of professions that do not have a greater impact on the public good than the architectural profession are to be excluded, then the ACE is compelled to call for the exclusion of architectural services too. The built environment constitutes the heritage of tomorrow, the buildings in which EU citizens spend more than 80% of their time, the assets which attract the highest level of investment and the realisation, running and maintenance of the built environment that has the highest environment impact of any economic sector. In view of their profound effect on the public interest logically architectural services should have also been excluded from the provisions of the Services Directive. The ACE intends to address all the EU Institutions, the national governments of the EU Member States and all concerned citizens in order to have this serious inconsistency reversed and to use the next steps in the process of the adoption of the Directive to exclude architectural services from the scope of the Directive. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |