"The Services Directive is an important part of the Lisbon Strategy and a major opportunity for more growth and jobs in Europe", Minister for Economics and President of the Council Martin Bartenstein said today in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The objective of the Services Directive, to create a European market for services and remove unjustified barriers to service providers, was clear and was generally supported.
The Commission’s original proposal, which came to be known as the Bolkestein Directive, had been widely discussed since February 2004 in the competent Council working groups and in the public at large. This draft directive had rightly attracted criticism on a number of points.
The Austrian Presidency and the Council now awaited the European Parliament’s position with great interest. Bartenstein hoped there would be a broad majority in Parliament. In this connection, he also welcomed the initiatives and efforts of the two big parliamentary groups, the European People’s Party (EEP-ED) and the Socialist Group (PSE), to find a broad consensus on controversial issues.
After the vote in the plenary, it was up to the Commission to play an active part in the codecision procedure. The Presidency – in close cooperation with the Parliament and the Commission - would work for a balanced directive that takes account to a large extent of the concerns about the original proposal while at the same time establishing a legal basis for a functioning internal market for services that utilises the potential for growth and jobs to the maximum.
Bartenstein also welcomed in this connection Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso’s announcement in January that the Commission would propose the main points for a political agreement very soon after the vote in the European Parliament and in time for the March summit. The Austrian Presidency would then conduct intensive discussions on this new proposal and take it forward with the involvement of the European social partners.
According to Bartenstein, the completion of the internal market for services aimed to bring benefits and advantages to business in Europe and to Europe’s citizens. It was, however, important to ensure that the European social model was not undermined. Europe’s citizens, he said, had a right to an internal market for services without the risk of wage and social dumping. The Services Directive had therefore to be neutral vis-à-vis labour law and there had to be clear, unambiguous provisions that did not adversely affect the Posting of Workers Directive. There had also to be sufficient provision for monitoring.
It had also to be made perfectly clear that the Services Directive did not negatively impact on the quality, the general availability and the affordability of services of general interest.
It must be the aim of each and every one of us, Bartenstein concluded, to derive the maximum benefit from the growth and jobs potential of the internal market for services, without thereby undermining public confidence in a social Europe.
Enquiries:
Federal Ministry for Economics and Labour
Office of the Minister: Holger Fürst, Tel: (++43-1) 71100-5193
Press section: Dr. Harald Hoyer, Tel: (++43-1) 71100-2058
mailto:presseabteilung@bmwa.gv.at
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