Regulation of professional services should be more finely tuned to the end users, a report from the European Parliament has claimed.


The draft report on further reform of professional services, prepared for the parliament's committee on economic and monetary affairs, last month called on the European Commission 'to broaden the scope of its analysis as regards the subdivision of regulatory protection'.


The report is the latest stage in the commission's 'Competition in professional services' initiative, of which legal services are a key part. Last year, the commission said consumers and one-off users 'may have a greater need of some carefully targeted regulatory protection' than large businesses and public sector users, who it said require little or no protection. It was not sure what protection smaller businesses need.


The follow-up report by Jan Christian Ehler, a German MEP, said this analysis needs to be refined to look at different kinds of users within those groups, adding that the failure to reach a position on small businesses 'lessens the impact' of the commission's statement.


Mr Ehler supported multi-disciplinary practices between groups that are subject to 'professional ethical standards' and said the parliament should be clear that it expects restrictions in various parts of Europe on advertising by lawyers and other professionals to be dismantled quickly.


In a debate on the report in the committee, Italian MEP Giovanni Pittella said professional bodies needed to show that they are up to the task and prepared to reform. The chairwoman, French MEP Pervenche Berès, cautioned that reform could not be pursued on a purely economic basis. This echoes the call of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of the EU, which says that the role of the legal profession in areas such as access to justice means other criteria need to be applied.


The committee is scheduled to vote on whether to adopt Mr Ehler's report in September.