1. What are the applicable rates, fees and duties, and what are they for?

2. Why is membership of a professional body mandatory?

3. What is the difference between Professional Bodies and Trade Unions?

4. What is the difference between Professional Bodies and Associations?

5. What is a code of conduct?

6. What are the role of the Professional Bodies?

7. What are the professional bodies?

8. What is UP's role internationally?

9. What is UP's role in Spain?

10. What is UP's role?

11.

What is Unión Profesional?

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1.What are the applicable rates, fees and duties, and what are they for?

Professionals no longer charge a tarifa or “rate”. They now bill fees (honorarios) for the rendering of a professional service.
An arancel (duty), on the other hand, is a fee set by the government on the basis of the public role of the professional.
Professional bodies try to set guidelines for fees on a basis of trust in the relationship between professional and client.
In recent years, Spanish and European Union competition authorities have required the professions to drop their former open system of fees.
The competition authorities view the client and the professional as being on an unequal footing, in that the client is largely unaware of the terms and value of the service and the work it really involves. There is an asymmetry of information, therefore, that must be balanced out by some form of regulation. The need for a certain minimum quality of service also means the price should not be left to a wholly free market. There should apply a system that proportionally balances the interests and positions of the parties to the relationship.
The European Parliament has recently issued recommendations along these lines, with a special emphasis on assuring quality.
A benchmark or guideline for professional fees is especially important in the case of court proceedings.

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2.Why is membership of a professional body mandatory?

Under Article 3.2 of the Professional Bodies Act, it is a requirement of practising a regulated profession to be registered with the relevant professional body. Where a profession is organised into local bodies, membership of a single local body – at the professional’s single or main domicile – will suffice for the member to be certified for practice anywhere in Spain.
The mandatory nature of membership flows from the constitutional source of the rules on professional bodies. The creation by the lawmaker of professional bodies makes for a twofold reality. On one hand, professionals (and, by extension, society as a whole) are entitled to membership; on the other, they are bound to be members (with a view to protecting citizens), because the practice of a profession is a public-interest activity that must be subject to controls.

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3.What is the difference between Professional Bodies and Trade Unions?

The right of forming a trade union, like the right of association, is contemplated under section 1 of the Constitution, and springs from the right of membership. The role of trade unions relates to the sphere of employed work, which is outside the bounds of the role of professional bodies.

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4.What is the difference between Professional Bodies and Associations?

Professional bodies come under Article 36 of the Spanish Constitution, section 2, Citizen rights and duties, while the right of association is set forth in Article 22 of the Constitution, section 1, Fundamental rights and civil liberties. The definition of each right under the Constitution specifies the features that sets it apart.
The creation of a professional body, what is more, involves national or regional parliaments. The legal force creating and underpinning a professional body is hence very solid, and requires a range of safeguards for professionals’ rights and duties.
In addition, professional bodies are bound by a legal mandate that makes them institutions halfway between the private and the public spheres (insofar as the state delegates a number of functions to them).

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5.What is a code of conduct?

A code of conduct is a set of rules that form the ethical framework for professional practice. To be a professional is not merely to have specialist knowledge, but also to keep to certain principles of behaviour. A code of conduct, therefore, gives professionals a point of reference by which to gauge the responsibility of their performance and the independence and impartiality of their decision-making, which are required in the provision of their professional service.

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6.What are the role of the Professional Bodies?

The Spanish Professional Bodies ordered the practice of professions. They represent exclusively to the liberal professions and defend the professional interests of their members, all without prejudice to the jurisdiction of the Civil Service and the specific one of the Organization of  Trade Unions in the field of industrial relations. From that standpoint, the Professional Bodies mainstream economically, socially and intellectually and develop an important social function in the defense of fundamental rights.

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7.What are the professional bodies?

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8.What is UP's role internationally?

On the international stage, Unión Profesional plays an active role representing Spanish professionals and using its resources to achieve global coordination of the liberal professions so as to buffer any adverse conditions that may arise.
Unión Profesional is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Council of the Liberal Professions (CEPLIS), based in Brussels, and holds the vice chair of the World Union of the Professions (UMPL), a United Nations consultative body which has been involved in the Arab-Israeli peace process.                          

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9.What is UP's role in Spain?

In Spain, as a gateway to the regulated professions, UP plays an active role as a liaison with the main policymakers and economic and social agents. Unión Profesional tracks and analyses regional, national, European and international legislation and policy affecting the professions and, through them, society as a whole. UP is also a multidisciplinary platform that works in the public interest.
Communication is key to UP’s role. The association has created the magazine Profesiones as a bridge between the professions and the wider community; the publication has become a space for reference, debate and discussion in organised civil society. In April 2006, UP started an Internet-based radio and television channel, Canal Profesiones. Canal Profesiones aims to be a medium of communication at the service of the professions and society. It is a reference-point for information and training for the Spanish regulated professions.
Canal Profesiones opened a key niche in communications relating to the professions – the audiovisual arena. Unión Profesional used the Internet to bypass the barriers of time and space of conventional media and enrich its broadcasts with documents, links and images providing audiovisual and written information at the click of a mouse. 
With a multidisciplinary, general-interest approach, Canal Profesiones programming aims to bring information, analysis and debate, and training and education. It comprises radio news releases, in-depth interviews with personalities of the professional bodies, and televised debates, talks and special features.  

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10.What is UP's role?

The association was created in 1980 for the furtherance and advocacy of the common interests of the professions and the coordinated attainment of public-interest aims. From its beginnings, UP has been a forum for debate, opinion and discussion on all issues relating to the professional bodies and their structures and the practice of the professions.
UP’s key lines of actions are to:

• Foster and strengthen the concept of a “profession”.
• Support initiatives in the public interest and address matters of social concern, as an independent, multidisciplinary body.
• Advocate a legal framework in which the professions and their professional bodies can operate effectively.
• Safeguard the quality requirements of professional practice (protection of professionals and of service users and patients).
• Develop codes of conduct.
• Support training.
  

UP pursues these activities in Spain and internationally.

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11.

What is Unión Profesional?

Unión Profesional is the national association representing the professional bodies of Spain. It comprises forty national councils of professional bodies. Together, the members of UP encompass over 1,000 local and regional bodies and close to one and a half million liberal professionals throughout the country. Unión Profesional ranges over the fields of law, healthcare, accountancy and finance, social care, science and technology. Its structure is inter-disciplinary. UP reflects the commitment of professional bodies to the reinforcement and advocacy of the culture and values of the professions in the wider community. UP is a major forum of academic, economic and social activity.
The Chairman of UP is Carlos Carnicer Díez, also the chair of the Consejo General de la Abogacía (the general council of the Spanish bar) and a member of the Consejo de Estado (the Spanish privy council).