By Bruno Waterfield - 4th July 2005
Controversial proposals to liberalise the EU’s service sector have became a “totem pole” in the heated debate over Europe’s future, Charlie McCreevy has told EUpolitix.com.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market acknowledges the legislation has become bound up with arguments over the ‘two Europes’: social versus economically liberal.
“The Services Directive is seen as one-sided in this great debate about Europe. I have to recognise that as fact,” he told this website. “Whether it should or should not be, is kind of irrelevant. It is a fact.”
Moves to shake-up Europe’s services sector became a key factor in the French referendum rejection of the EU constitution.
McCreevy is concerned the proposals could become a victim of heated fall out in an ideological battle between ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and ‘social Europe’ economic models for the EU.
“In the debate in France it formed a lot of the background to the referendum… It certainly was a factor, a great debating issue,” the commissioner said.
“Now the question is: has it become kind of a totem pole for people? I don’t think the Services Directive should become that particular totem pole or litmus test regarding what side of the debate that you’re on.”
But the services directive, McCreevy insists, is not dead after the French ‘non’.
The legislation’s “next big day” comes in key European Parliament votes this autumn on proposals drafted by German Socialist MEP Evelyne Gebhardt.
McCreevy is clearly optimistic that some of Gebhardt’s demands - to scrap ‘country of origin principle’ for example – will be ditched or watered down to suit the commission during the coming weeks and months.
“The country of origin principal, the scope of the directive, the applicable law, they are the big areas, the big tricky areas.”
“The Luxembourg [EU] presidency did a lot of work in some of the other areas. But the major difficult issues have been left aside for a while in order to allow MEPs to have their discussions, set out points of view and perhaps, the possibility that the parliament can arrive at consensus on a number of areas,” he said.
“There are people who are very much for the services directive, there’s a group very much against it and in the middle there are a lot of people who see the need for a services directive but have some concerns about certain areas of this particular proposal.”
“The goal is to achieve a directive which unleashes economic potential in the services area and has a significant economic impact.”
Putting recognised concerns over the Services directive to one side, McCreevy views the debate around social versus free market Europe in “very stark, simple terms”.
The commissioner suggests critics of Anglo-Saxon style economic liberalism need to come up with an alternative.
“Look across the world, look what’s happening in the area of economic activity. Europe is not growing at the required level that it must be at to sustain good social services, good sustainable development.
“It is not near being at a level of economic activity that allows us to provide for an aging population, in terms of health or pensions or whatever,” he said.
“Therefore, those that don’t like the more open economies - which have been successful in those countries of Europe who have done it - have a duty, I say, to tell me and others what is the alternative. Perhaps there is some other formula somewhere to increase economic activity, but I think they should come along fairly soon and tell us about it.”
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.