By Chris Jones - 9th February 2006
There is no political will from the European commission or national governments to back the services directive, claims a Brussels-based NGO.
Eurocommerce, which represents wholesalers and retailers such as the major supermarket groups, said that the lack of support was astonishing given the commission’s avowed commitment to boosting competitiveness.
“The political attitude is not good,” said Patrice Pellegrino, Eurocommerce’s advisor on the internal market.
“The commission has been ambivalent at best about the services directive, even though it has a duty to defend the proposal which it put forward.”
And the member states are no better, he claimed. “Everyone backed the need to boost jobs and growth in Lisbon in 2000 – including the completion of the single market.”
“But national problems have since polluted the debate – so much so that some countries, such as France, are now completely against the directive.”
Echoing EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson in his speech to European retailers in Prague on Tuesday, Pellegrino suggested that national governments had given in to populist calls for more protectionism.
“Services are just being used as a smokescreen. What this is really about is trust – do we trust the Poles, do we trust the Czechs?”
“This is why there will be protestors in Strasbourg at next week’s plenary session to complain about the threat of social dumping – even though this has never been an issue covered by the directive, it has been seized upon by politicians riding a wave of populism.”
“There is nothing in the services directive that would remove workers’ social protection – in fact, there is nothing new in there at all, it is simply a consolidation of EU case law.”
Even the much-disputed country of origin principle, which regulates which country’s rules should apply to companies offering cross-border services, is already enshrined in EU law – in article 50 of the founding Treaty of Rome.
What politicians at bEU 'oth the national and European level should be doing is explaining what the services directive will mean in practice, Pellegrino suggests.
“Take the issue of social protection for workers. This is not covered by the services directive because it is subject to legislation already in place, on the posting of workers.”
“But this directive was so badly transposed into national laws that it has proved to be a barrier to cross-border business rather than an aid.”
“Politicians in France may say they are against the services directive, but what they don’t explain is how their arcane rules are encouraging black market workers.”
Pellegrino gave the example of MEP assistants. “Many MEPs have freelance assistants, who are registered in Belgium. But when they go to the plenary sessions in Strasbourg, they are providing a service for their MEP in a different country.”
“French rules state that any service provider based in another country must notify the local French authorities at least 10 days in advance before starting the service. How many MEPs do this, let alone even know that these rules exist?”
“France explains that these rules are about protection workers, but what protection can such prior notification possibly offer?”
According to Xavier Durieu, CEO of Eurocommerce, the services directive would provide legal certainty for companies and bring thousands of workers into the ‘official’ workplace.
“The fact is that there is already a huge amount of worker mobility within the EU, as the commission’s own report showed this week.”
“The barriers to official posting of workers are so great in many countries that many people are currently working illegally. By removing these barriers, the services directive would do more to protect workers, by bringing them into the system.”
MEPs have also targeted the removal of these barriers as the key to ensuring a free market for services, agreeing on Wednesday to include in their amendments to the proposal a list of specific barriers that must be removed.
These include requirements to set up local offices and to provide certificates of establishment from their local authorities, among others.
They have also sought assurances from the Austrian EU presidency that Vienna will put pressure on other national capitals to remove these barriers.
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