Services law vote ‘on a knife-edge’

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 29/09/05

Party divisions on the most fundamental aspects of a law opening up the European services market are so entrenched that the final decision could depend on a couple of votes, European Parliament officials have said.

Members of the internal market committee will vote on more than a thousand amendments to the services directive during a mammoth 12-hour session divided between Tuesday and Wednesday (4 and 5 October).

All parties were holed up in private meetings in Strasbourg this week trying to reach a compromise, but sources say that their attempts have failed on the major issues.

"They have agreed on what they cannot agree on but that's about it," said one official.

The situation is so bad, he said, that the two broadly opposed sides - the centre right EPP-ED and the Liberals on one side, and the Socialists and the Greens on the other - know that they will be scrabbling for every single vote, both next week and at the plenary on 26 October.

UK centre-right MEP Malcolm Harbour is still leading the side pushing for the directive to be subject to the internal market principle whereby anyone offering a service is subject to his national standards, while German Socialist and rapporteur Evelyne Gebhardt's supporters are in staunch opposition. "It would need a miracle to get a compromise," said an official.

The parties remain divided over which sectors should be included in the directive.

The Socialists are demanding that any public service should be exempt from the proposal, while their opponents argue that any public service funded by the private sector, such as private transport services or health clinics, should be covered.

Some MEPs have had enough. "The Commission should think carefully before presenting another package like this in the future," said Finnish Liberal Anneli Jääteenmaki.

"Because it is too broad, it is too bureaucratic and everybody knows that there are so many details it is impossible to understand. I don't think it will result in good legislation."

Charlie McCreevy, the internal market commissioner, has already said that the European Commission is ready to accept changes based on the Parliament's decision.

Article anticipates a session of the European Parliaments Internal Market Committee on 4-5 October 2005. The Committee was to vote on more than a thousand amendments to the proposed Services Directive during a mammoth 12-hour session. Author suggests that party divisions on the most fundamental aspects of the law opening up the European services market were so entrenched that the final decision could depend on a couple of votes.

• Primary Source

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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