INTRODUCTION

This chapter is about the right to pursue an occupation in another Member State. It is organised as follows.

Section 2 outlines the scope of this right. Article 45 TFEU provides a right to work in other Member States, while Article 49 TFEU provides a right to self-employment in other Member States. While these are separate Treaty provisions, the Court of Justice increasingly interprets them in parallel. Beneficiaries are EU citizens (and companies in the case of Article 49) who engage in a more than marginal economic activity with some cross-border element. If the subject lives in one state and works in another, this is sufficiently cross-border.

Section 3 considers national measures which restrict access to an occupation. In the past, certain professions were often restricted to nationals, but more recent cases tend to concern refusals to recognise foreign qualifications, or measures which make establishment of a business or professional practice subject to various requirements: these may be to do with the legal form of the business, the qualifications of the owner or shareholders, local economic need, or limits on the number of establishments which one person or company may run. The Court's approach, as ever, is to permit only those justified by the public interest and proportionate.