Sustainable Tourism Law

SUSTAINABILITY: THE PATH FROM STOCKHOLM TO THE EUROPEAN CHARTER 649 The conclusion of the internal market in tourist services 52 , a Community- wide classification of tourist services 53 , establishes some of the objectives in 52 The exclusivity principle in which, during more than half a century, the regulation for travel agencies was laid is now presented as an obstacle to remove due to the free flow of services inside the European Union. The Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 in OJEU L 376/36, 27.12.2006, known as Services Directive in the internal market or Bolkestein Directive paying tribute to Frits Bolkestein, former European Commissioner for Internal Market andTaxation, has deep implications in different sectors of the European Union’s economy, namely in what concerns travel agencies (see the consideration no. 33 of the community diploma) and tourism operators, loosening considerately the market access and eliminating the situations of legal monopoly . The critics of the diploma focus on the following aspects: 1 st ) Excessive deregulation of the internal market provoking an increment of disloyal competition; 2 nd ) Weakening of social cohesion; 3 rd ) Decrease in employment quality. However, for its defenders, the unitary legal framework allows the liberalization of the internal market’s services, which represent 70% of the European Union’s economic activity, eliminating the obstacles to its free circulation, boosting employment and creating more advantages to consumers. The European Union didn’t dispose of a set of norms related to the access to the profession of travel agent, given that a relative majority of countries had adopted it, up until the community discipline in analysis, the licensing systems associated to the exclusivity principle. Legal Framework of travel agencies and tourism operators in themember-States of the European Union Countries with mandatory licensing Countries without mandatory licensing France Poland Romania Italy Hungary Slovakia Portugal Czech Republic Bulgaria Belgium Austria Malta Germany Sweden Estonia United Kingdom Latvia Netherlands Norway Switzerland Luxembourg Denmark Finland The Directive guided by the elimination of obstacles to the free provision of services strongly restrains the authorization regime – as it happens in licensing travel and tourism agencies’ activities – which can only take place in a strict triple requisite of cumulative nature: 1 st ) it can’t be discriminatory about the concerned provider; 2 nd ) it has to be justified by an imperative reason of general interest; 3 rd ) the objective can’t be reached through a less restraining measure (article 9/1). The fundamental rule is found modelled on article 16, no. 1, of the free provision of services according to which the member-States must respect the right of the providers to develop their activity in a different member-State of the one they’re established. Meaning, the member-State in which the service is provided must assure the free access and exercise of the activity in the services’ sector. This extraordinary market access ease originated a strong depreciation, not to say suppression, of the values of licenses that were for sale due to the difficult situation of the economy at the time. Since then, the license price of around 12.500€ would be substantially reduced because, unlike a charge, in this tax there’sareciprocitynexus,constitutingaservicepaymentprovidedbytheState,meaning,thus,anobviouslydisproportionate remuneration (an already old argument, never sufficiently pondered and that in the initial version of the law would have led to the prediction of a part that would be applied to support the travel agent institutions, a legal intention that wasn’t put into practice). The excessive minimum capital share of 100.000€ brings difficulties to the compatibility with the new community framework. To the deposit and civil responsibility insurance, because they come from a different Directive (no. 90/314 related to tourism packages), no significant alterations are imposed, just simple adjustments. 53 “with the cooperation of the industry, to be used in particular for the classification of hotel facilities; also considers that measures should be taken in order to identify clearly and to harmonise professional profiles in the tourist industry in order to avoid unnecessary duplication and guarantee a more transparent service that does not confuse users”.