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A highly controversial measure and one that will not see the light of day. This, in short, is the fate of the draft bill on Professional Services and Professional Associations, according to statements made yesterday by the secretary general of the PP, María Dolores de Cospedal. The also president of Castilla-La Mancha and candidate for re-election said that the Government, in agreement with the majority party, “stopped and withdrew” the draft bill of the Law on Professional Services and Professional Associations.

During an informative breakfast organized by the Fundación Caminos -the think tank of the Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos-, Cospedal admitted that the Executive received “enormous pressure from the EU institutions” to bring forward the new regulation, which drastically reduced the professions for which compulsory membership is foreseen, among other measures.

However, “from the Government and the party itself, it was suggested that we could not go ahead”, said the PP’s number two, no matter how intense and persistent the European Union’s demand to review the regulations on the guilds was, and with the sword of Damocles of “a possible infringement procedure”.

Cospedal did not delve into the reasons that made the Executive backtrack, but stressed that both President Mariano Rajoy and herself are convinced of the usefulness of professional representative bodies. “We are going to maintain the professional associations,” she assured, although she explained that they must “review their purposes”, with the aim not only of “defending the interests of their members”, but also of transferring to society “all their expertise, their know-how”.

In allusion to her political adversaries, the secretary general of the PP also replied to those who propose to maintain the professional associations and at the same time respond to the demands of Europe. “You can’t get along with everyone,” he assured.

In February, the Minister of Economy, Luis De Guindos, announced that the draft bill – now considered withdrawn by Cospedal – had been delayed sine die. Department sources assured then that the Government was discussing in the European Commission the regulation of access to certain professions, in the framework of the reciprocal evaluation of the directive on the recognition of professional qualifications, approved in November 2013, and that it was awaiting the result of this assessment to “better position itself and act”. These same sources reconfirmed yesterday.

The presentation of this preliminary draft, which dates back to early 2013 and of which various drafts were made known, raised protests from several guilds and the Professional Union, of which 35 General Councils of Colleges, representing 1.3 million professionals, are members. The limitation of compulsory membership, the free choice of the place where to register in a college or the elimination of registration fees and the limit of 240 euros for annual fees were the measures that caused their opposition to the law.

The conflicting aspects of a frustrated reform

Lawyers, architects and engineers. These were three of the groups that were most involved in the opposition to the Law on Professional Associations. The regulation provided for the elimination of the obligation to be a member of the bar for lawyers who have an employment relationship with their clients, the so-called in-house lawyers. “They will cease to have a code of ethics,” said the spokesman for the General Council of Lawyers, Lucas Blanque. “Certain guarantees offered by compulsory membership, such as control or management of the profession, would be in clear regression,” he added.

Another controversial aspect was the government’s intention to control the budgets of the Colleges more tightly. “As soon as you dig a little into the text, instead of a supposed liberalization, you find interventionism,” said Ramón Entrena Cuesta, a lawyer who has been a member of the bar for half a century.

Similar criticisms came from architects and engineers regarding the elimination of compulsory membership for professionals who do not sign projects and do not direct works. “This way it is difficult for the College to exercise its function of deontological control,” explained the president of the Council of Architects’ Associations, Jordi Ludevid. “There are countless activities in which the engineer with work dependence, without the need to sign projects or direct works, incurs personal responsibilities that can have serious consequences for the company and for third parties,” reminds the Council of Industrial Engineers. Regarding the elimination of registration and the limit of 240 euros annual fee, Ludevid argued that this is “a regulatory issue, which must be resolved within the scope of the autonomy of the colleges.”

(News extracted from CINCO DÍAS)