Parliament committees in race to deliver services directive

By Aoife White

Date: 07/07/05

The European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee will vote on the services directive next Tuesday (12 July), becoming the sixth committee to complete its deliberations on the controversial proposal.

But the economic and affairs committee will not complete its consideration until 5 September at the earliest with the timetable for advancement of the proposal apparently at risk.

German Socialist MEP Evelyne Gebhardt is reporting on the proposal for the lead committee on the services directive, the internal market committee. She said she was determined to stick to a mid-September date for a vote in her committee. She said it was important that the vote took place on 12 or 13 September to allow the UK presidency to take the proposal forward this year.

The economic and monetary affairs committee faces the most daunting task with a vote scheduled for 5 September and some 218 amendments put forward to a report from German far-left MEP Sahra Wagenknecht.

Gebhardt said her committee would be careful to take into account the opinion from the employment and social affairs committee after its vote.

The internal market committee faces a heavy autumn workload with hundreds of amendments both for reports on services and the REACH chemicals proposal.

The centre-right EPP-ED co-ordinator for the committee, Malcolm Harbour, stressed that the groups were still keen to negotiate.

Harbour said the EPP-ED would stick to its line of opposing Gebhardt's concept of mutual recognition which he said took the directive in the wrong direction.

Anticipation of a vote in the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee on the proposed Services Directive, 12 July 2005. The leading committee, the Economic and Social Affairs Committee was not to complete its consideration until 5 September 2005 at the earliest with the timetable for advancement of the proposal apparently at risk.

European Commission: PreLex: COM(2004)2: Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Services in the Internal Market http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2002:002:FIN

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