A joint proposal from the Netherlands and Ireland to the Spring European Council 2003. The internal market for commercial services

Summary of a joint proposal, issued on 27 February 2003, by the Irish Prime Minister, Bertie Ahern, and his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, in which they called on European leaders to use the forthcoming Spring European Council on 21 March 2003, to address the challenge of removing the remaining barriers to trade in the services area. This proposal was put forward in the context of the Lisbon European Council of March 2000, at which the EU set itself the challenge of making Europe the most competitive economy in the world by 2010 (the Lisbon Agenda).