| Author (Person) | McLauchlin, Anna |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.11, No.16, 28.4.05 |
| Publication Date | 28/04/2005 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 28/04/05 TRADE unions have welcomed the proposed changes to the EU directive freeing up the cross-border services market, but warned that the battle is not yet won. European workers have been the strongest opponents of the law now dubbed the 'Bolkestein directive' after the former internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein, who proposed it. They claim it will damage social protection, as it will be in governments' interests to keep social levels as low as possible to export the maximum number of jobs to richer parts of the EU. German Socialist Evelyne Gebhardt, who presented her report to MEPs earlier this month, has, according to unions, proposed some positive changes. By calling for the exclusion of labour relations and services of general interest such as transport, communications and energy, from the scope of the directive, she has minimised abuse of the directive in the most sensitive areas, the unions say. Gebhardt has also called for the removal of the highly controversial internal market 'country of origin' principle, under which service providers would only be subject to the law of their own country wherever they work in the EU, proposing instead to replace it with mutual recognition and harmonised rules on services. "Gebhardt's report goes along the right lines," said Olivier Derruine from the Belgian Confédération des Syndicats Chrétiens, a Christian trade union group. "But we still have questions." Belgian workers were the first to take to the streets to demonstrate against the services directive in June 2004. Worried that member states would not have the inclination or the resources to ensure that their workers were abiding by the rules laid out in the EU posting of workers directive, Gebhardt wants to shift responsibility for carrying out checks on service providers to the country where they are operating. But Derruine points out that, as it is, the 216 Belgian inspectors are already struggling to cover the 216,000 companies they have to check up on and wonders where the money will come from to increase these numbers when, in addition, they have to inspect foreign service providers. "It's a question of government priority and we don't know how that will happen in practice," he said. The concern is that if insufficient checks are carried out, unscrupulous contractors or their hirers may not adhere to EU labour rules and may undercut the market. Lars Nyberg from Swedish trade union Landsorganisationen (LO), worries that not enough is known about the principle of mutual recognition whereby member states would accept the standard of services provided by another member state. "We have been discussing the country of origin principle for a year," he said. "Now we have the possibility of another principle that we haven't had the chance to discuss at all." "Mutual recognition is normally used for goods. When you involve the labour law of other countries it might be a problem," he added. Nyberg also accused Gebhardt of modelling the services directive on Central Europe alone. According to both drafts of the law, collective wage agreements would have to be verified by the state authorities, but in Sweden such agreements are concluded between trade unions and employers' associations, without interference from the state. "We have to make the European Parliament aware of our system," said Nyberg. Gebhardt has also only produced a report for the first half of the directive, not yet tackling the issue of healthcare provision, the posting of workers or the co-operation between national administrative bodies. "We're not resting yet," said Derruine. "Apart from anything else we don't know how the Parliament will vote. The liberals (ALDE) are still pushing for the country of origin principle and the centre-right (EPP-ED) is split. The process is far from over." Finnish Socialist MEP Lasse Lehtinen said that unions should be careful not to jump on the bandwagon over the directive. "They have some good points but this discussion is too heated now and it has become unreasonable," he said. "We should wait until the dust has settled on the national issues before we go into the details again." Lehtinen also criticised the fact that unions and businesses had formed an "unholy alliance" over the directive, which amounted to "protectionism". Article reports that European trade unions welcomed the proposed changes to the EU Directive on Services in the Internal Market. Among the changes, called for by German Socialist MEP Evelyne Gebhardt in her report to the European Parliament's Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, are the exclusion of labour relations and services of general interest such as transport, communications and energy, from the scope of the directive and the removal of the highly controversial internal market 'country of origin' principle. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Internal Markets, Politics and International Relations |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
