Services directive should not open door to social dumping

Commenting as the European Parliament's internal market committee (IMCO) met to vote on a report on the controversial services directive today, German MEP Heide Rühle, Green/EFA group IMCO coordinator, said:

"The Greens do not, in principle, oppose a European regulation for services. But the draft directive that the Commission presented is both insufficient and dangerous. This is illustrated by the enormous number of amendments – 1124 in total – tabled in advance of today's vote. There is a danger now that this vote will create totally incoherent legislation."

"Our group supports the amendments presented by the Parliamentary draftsperson, Evelyne Gebhardt. It is important for us to reduce the scope of the directive and ensure that the services of general interest (including education) and services of general economic interest (including health services and water and waste management) are protected from liberalisation. The directive should only apply to purely commercial services that don't have any general economic implications."

Belgian MEP for Ecolo Pierre Jonckheer, also a member of the internal market committee, added:

"The liberalisation of services should not open the door to social dumping. That's why we reject the country of origin principle. This approach only makes sense in areas where the social and labour standards are harmonised on a European level. But today this is not yet the case in many areas, there are especially big differences between some old and new member states."

"The Bolkestein-directive has caused huge concerns among EU citizens and was one of the decisive reasons behind the French rejection of the European constitution. The outcome of today's vote is likely to be very close, but we are sure that the majority of the Parliament will vote for a socially acceptable directive in the plenary in the end of October."

Jean Lambert, UK Green member of the Parliament's employment committee, concluded:

"We really need to be clear about what the directive does and doesn't cover. This is about clarity, The Commission's proposal is so flawed that it creates more question than it answers. We need to be assured that health and public services are explicitly excluded. People have fought hard to establish universal public services in Europe and we don't want to see them chipped away – especially by a directive that we have been told has no such intention."

[ENDS]

For more information contact:

Heide Rühle MEP

E-mail: hruehle@europarl.eu.int, Tel : +32-2-2845609

Pierre Jonckheer MEP

E-mail: pjonckheer@europarl.eu.int, Tel : +32-2-2845896

Jean Lambert MEP

E-mail: jelambert@europarl.eu.int, Tel : +32-2-2845507

Stany Grudzielski, Green/EFA adviser on the IMCO committee

E-mail: sgrudzielski@europarl.eu.int, Tel : +32-2-2831455