France facing European court case
The French government is to be taken to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by the European Commission over its refusal to allow medical laboratories established in another member state to open a branch or agency in France.
France may also be told to scrap regulations preventing laboratories based elsewhere in the EU from providing cross-border services unless they have a licensed operating establishment on French soil.
A Commission statement said: 'These rules constitute a barrier to the rules on the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services.'