Forum on Services and Trade Liberalisation

Date: 2.2.2009 — 3.2.2009
Venue: Prague - Czech Republic
Category: Conferences and Seminars
Theme: Competitiveness

Conference on the future of services in the internal market, 2 February 2009

On 2 February 2009 a conference on the future of services in the internal market was held as part of the two-day Forum on Services and Trade Liberalisation. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in cooperation with the European Commission.

This was one of the first events of the Ministry of Industry and Trade during the Czech EU Presidency. The main themes were the continued implementation of the Services Directive in the internal market and other developments in the service sector in the EU. The conference was made up of three thematic panels about services in the EU, particularly the Services Directive in the internal market seen from different points of view.

The discussion in the first panel was on the Services Directive and its main function, i.e. removing barriers on the internal EU market. Another panel dealt with concrete problems in transposing the directive which were discussed by the working group on the implementation of the Services Directive, among others with a number of you. Finally, the third panel evaluated the future of services in the internal market after the transposition of the Services Directive.

Conference on the liberalisation of trade, 3 February 2009

On 3 February 2009 the Clarion Congress Hotel Prague hosted the second part of the Forum on Services and Trade Liberalisation – a conference on the liberalisation of trade. The aim of the conference was to shed light on the impacts of trade liberalisation from different angles (European Commission, authorities in the Member States, the business environment and the academic environment).

The conference was made up of two parts: talks and discussions. In the morning the individual talks were delivered in the form of lectures and create the basis for the ensuing debate in two panels where the participants in the conference had the opportunity to dispute the positions of the speakers.

Press Conference 2 February 2009 (13:00 – 13:30)

Speakers:

Martin Tlapa – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade
Tomáš Bartovský – Spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Trade
Jörgen Holmquist - Directorate General for Internal Market and Services; European Commission
George Parker - Financial Times; Bureau Chief of the Brussels Office