European Interest

EU court rules against Czech requirement for notaries

Flickr/Transparency International/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The European Court of Justice has ruled that the Czech Republic has violated the freedom of establishment embedded in European Union law.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that the Czech Republic has violated the freedom of establishment embedded in European Union law. It said the country’s nationality requirement for notaries is discriminatory.

The European Commission filed a lawsuit against Prague over the Czech nationality requirement for notaries in February 2016.

As reported by the Prague Daily Monitor, the court ruled that none of the activities of the notary practice in the Czech Republic is connected with the public power execution, and consequently the access to the notary’s profession in an EU member state cannot be made conditional on nationality.

The verdict, delivered on March 15, states that freedom of establishment applies to the notary profession.

In a press release, the court said that legal consultancy, representing parties, the preparation of private documents, legal analyses and entering data into public registers cannot be qualified as the public power execution even if those steps are legal duties.

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