Ministers back EU services text

A desire to draw a line under the controversial dossier looks set to override any lingering concerns from member states about the new EU services directive.

EU ministers, meeting informally in the Austrian town of Graz on Saturday, gave their backing to the revised text, presented by internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

Free market champions such as the UK, Netherlands and Poland had been expected to challenge new provisions allowing more protectionist capitals to block cross-border service providers, in particular for public services.

But Austria’s employment minister Martin Bartenstein told journalists that there were no major objections to the new text, and that it would simply need some “fine tuning”.

Exactly which areas will need to be changed will be decided over the next week, most likely by Coreper, the meeting of the permanent representatives from each member state in Brussels.

Any changes are likely to be minimal, however, with ministers from all 25 EU members keen to agree on a common position at their next formal meeting on May 29, paving the way for a rapid agreement in the European parliament in the autumn.

Member states are fearful that any moves to reinsert liberalising provisions into the text could prompt a repeat of the massive street protests that accompanied parliament’s first reading in February.

The protests were prompted by concerns that the original text, put forward by McCreevy’s predecessor Frits Bolkestein, was too liberal and would lead to “social dumping” – the flooding of the market with low-cost workers offering poor quality services.

The so-called Bolkestein directive is also thought to be partially responsible for the rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters last spring. 

The new text provides greater social protection by allowing each member state to apply their own labour laws to service providers from other member states.

MEPs welcomed the ministers’ decision not to press for sweeping changes to the commission’s new proposal.

“We have a clear commitment from the informal council…that parliament’s draft text as voted in the first reading will be the basis of the council’s common position,” said Malcolm Harbour, the UK Conservative MEP who is the centre-right spokesman on the services directive.

But he reiterated calls for McCreevy to give more support to the new text.

“A more active stance of the commission towards the member states still seems necessary,” he said.

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