Hold firm on services, six countries tell McCreevy

The governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK have sent a letter to Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, urging him not to cave in to the Parliament on the services directive. 

In the letter, the ministers and secretaries of state from the six member states warn that the EU will need “competitive markets” in order to meet the challenge from China, which will soon be economically larger than any single country in the EU. They say that the Commission’s position after the vote in the Parliament’s Plenary on 16 February 2006, “will set the framework for the subsequent negotiations in the Council” and that their letter is one “of support and encouragement”. 

The letter is seen as a reaction to the compromise amendments hammered out between the socialist and conservative groups in the Parliament on 8 February 2006. The amendments are likely to be adopted by a vast majority of the assembly. The letter directly addresses some of the same issues as the amendments. It urges lawmakers to:

• “avoid excluding large sectors of the European economy from mechanisms to remove barriers to establishment” – the compromise amendments introduce a number of opt-out possibilities, for instance for social and environmental services;
• “avoid watering down the Articles on cross-border service provision” – the exclusion of labour law and fundamental rights and of limitations to the country-of-origin-principle in the compromise amendments has repeatedly been referred to as a “watering down”.
• “address the unnecessary administrative barriers companies face when posting workers abroad, without adding new burdens. The existing Community legislation on Posted Workers already guarantees worker’s fundamental rights and conditions. The continued application of the Posted Workers Directive should be stated unambiguously.” – The EPP-ED and PSE have agreed to support an amendment adopted in the internal market committee deleting Article 24 of the draft, which deals with the posting of workers. As a result, the posting of workers directive will not be affected by the services directive. However, this is not stated explicitly in the text of the draft directive or in any of the compromise amendments. 

While the signature of the liberal-minded governments of the UK and the Netherlands and the ones of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic under the document come as no surprise, socialist-governed Spain’s adherence to it may be an indication that Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero is moving closer to the UK Labour Party’s liberal mind set and away from France and Germany, who have spoken out against more deregulation of public services.

For stakeholder’s reactions to the compromise between the Parliament’s two biggest groups, see EURACTIV’s 
LinksDossier on the Services Directive. 

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