Authorisation scheme

Any procedure under which a provider or recipient is in effect required to take steps in order to obtain from a competent authority a formal decision, or an implied decision, concerning access to  an economic or other activity. The concept covers, inter alia, the administrative procedures for granting authorizations, licences, approvals, and also the obligation, in order to be eligible to exercise the activity, to be registered as a member of a profession or entered in a register, roll or database, to be officially appointed to a body or to obtain a card attesting to the membership of a particular profession.