Challenges of the Knowledge Society (May 2019)
EU TRADE POLICY AFTER BREXIT. PROVISION OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Abstract
The accession to the European Union has been an irreversible and unique process until the Lisbon Treaty and the recent United Kingdom withdrawal. The legal consequences of such withdrawal cannot be analysed in a separated way from the economic and social ones or from the future United Kingdom status - third country as the European Commission stated - which supposes the application of the same regime as for the actual third countries in the field of the common commercial policy. The new generation of the trade agreements negotiated with developed third countries such as the USA, Canada (already concluded), New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, or countries as Chile and Indonesia, contains specific dispositions on the provision of professional services with an important economic input facilitating the free movement of persons. The European Union has an exclusive competence to conclude these international agreements in accordance with the art. 3 of the Treaty on functioning of the European Union, but it remains under discussion and analysis its competence to include the recognition of the professional qualifications within these agreements or to conclude a separate one on this matter
