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GAZETTE
N E W S
DECEMBER 1993
Liberal profession of Europe
must define their role
L-r: Michael V. O'Mahony. then Senior Vice-President of the Law Society: Dr. Susanne Tiemann,
Chairman of the EC Economic Committee and President of SEP LIS; John Fish, then Chairman of EC
& International Affairs Committee, Law Society, and Noel Ryan, Director General, Law Society.
Addressing a meeting of the Inter-
Professional Group, held in the Law
Society, on 28 October, 1993, Dr
Susanne Tiemann
, Chairman of the EU
Economic and Social Committee and
President of SEPLIS, said that it was up
to the liberal professions of Europe to
define their role, otherwise the EU
Commission might do so without their
participation. Dr Tiemann said the EU
may soon move to codify a definition of
the liberal professions, and there should
be strong input from within the
professions, in order to protect their
codes of ethics.
Dr Tiemann was speaking as President
of SEPLIS (The European Secretariat of
the Liberal Intellectual and Social
Professions), on which the Irish
professions are represented by the Inter-
Professional Group. "Recent polls
revealed that SEPLIS represents some 4
million liberal professionals in the EC,
who generate 10% of its GNP and
employ 10 million people," she said,
"and yet there are proposals to the
Commission which make no distinction
between liberal professionals and
service industries as regards consumer
protection and competition".
Dr Tiemann argued that it was an
essential if there was to be a free Europe
that there was respect for the liberal
professions and that their unique
characteristics were recognised and
valued. The role played by liberal
professions was essential in
guaranteeing the freedom of Europe's
citizens and protecting the freedom of
individual determination.
She described the essential character-
istics of liberal professions. First of all,
they were highly individualistic and thus
hard to govern, but this was a good
thing since too many people were too
easy to govern. Professionals were
highly qualified and responsible for their
acts. They were independent and had
professional autonomy. They were
bound only by the welfare of their
patient or client; orders from the State or
third parties were not material. They
followed codes of professional ethics.
They were an integral part of a liberal
social order, for example, in the Eastern
European States there had been no
democracy and thus no professions
!
because there was no place for
professions. She said Europe was not
only about achieving a single market; if
j
Europe was to be a real community and
one with which people could identify, it
would have to be a European society
with more freedom, democracy and
transparency. The liberal professions
were essential in guaranteeing these
qualities and therefore the liberal
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professions had an important role to
play in developing Europe.
Dr Tiemann warned that the main threat
at European Union Commission level
concerned the possible resurrection of a j
proposed EU directive on liability for
j
providers of services, as a counterpart to
the existing directive on product
liability. These moves would ignore the
protection and quality assurance offered
to consumers through systems of
professional qualification, specialisation
and continuing in-service education,
which are now as much a part of the
ethos of the liberal professions as are
the traditional codes of ethics which
define the duties of professionals to
their clients. She said that, as yet,
European policy makers were not
convinced of the distinction between
liberal professions and commercial
enterprises. It was the main goal of
SEPLIS to bring to the fore the
importance of the independence of
liberal professions and much work
needed to be done to make policy
makers in the EU Commission aware of
these important distinctions.
Instead of merely reacting to this threat,
said Dr Tiemann, the professions should
take a positive attitude to their role in
the future Europe. They play a substan-
tial role in the Economic and Social
Committee, which is the consultative
assembly of the EU, representing
various categories of citizens in their
professional and social capacities and
advising the EU Council of Ministers on
Commission proposals. The Committee
is described by Commission President
Jacques Delors
as "guarantor both of
economic and social democracy and of
transparency in the construction of
Europe," Dr Tiemann stated.
•
Barbara Cahalane
390