Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-14-Speech-2-182"
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"en.20060214.26.2-182"2
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".
Mr President, Mr President of the Commission, Commissioner McCreevy, Mrs Gebhardt, ladies and gentlemen, as Mrs Gebhardt has just said, it was in February 2004 that the Commission put forward a proposal for a directive on services in the European single market, the idea being that implementation of it would bring us a bit closer to the Lisbon objectives. In November 2004, the report of the high level group of experts chaired by Wim Kok – which, I might add, was appointed by the Commission to prepare for the mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy – called for the creation of a European market in services, which it saw as presenting the greatest opportunity for more growth in Europe. From an economic point of view, a growth spurt is just what Europe needs, and we know that – growth, and the employment that results from it, are top priorities for all of us.
The Presidency also welcomes Mr Barroso’s announcement in Vienna to the effect that the plenary vote would very soon, and in good time for the March European Council, be followed by a proposal as to the points essential to a political agreement. The Austrian Presidency will then discuss these in depth and take them further – and I stress that it will do this with the full involvement of the social partners.
We have the opportunity to maximise our potential for growth and job creation by means of an internal market in services, while at the same time building up public confidence in a social Europe. That must be a goal for us all.
In its first ten years of existence, the European internal market has chalked up some considerable successes, not least the creation of 2.5 million new jobs. It is precisely for that reason that all its remaining loose ends need to be tied up, but the legal and administrative hurdles that the Commission has put in the way of service providers have demonstrated to us how fragmented the European services markets are in reality, resulting in needlessly high prices, consumers losing out as a result of insufficient competition, and missed opportunities for increased growth and job creation.
The proposal to which I have already referred was brought in by the former Prodi Commission, the Commissioner responsible for it being Frits Bolkestein, and it has, since February 2004, been the subject of in-depth discussion in the relevant working party of the Council. In the context of public debate, it has come in for a great deal of criticism, some of which has been justified. There are those also who have used it – without any justification – as the occasion to spread anxiety.
It has to be said that the directive is quite clear about what it is intended to do, and there is widespread support for the principle behind it, that being the further freeing-up of service provision and the systematic removal of unjustified barriers to service providers.
Now is the time for the Commission to revise the means by which that is to be achieved, and the vote in your House will be essential as a basis for this. The intention is that the completion of the internal market in services should bring benefits and advantages to Europe’s citizens, consumers and businesses, while leaving no way open whereby the European social model might be undermined or jeopardised.
The people of Europe have every right to an internal market in services free from the risk of wage dumping or social dumping. If they are to get one, the services directive will have to be neutral in terms of labour law; there will also have to be clear and unambiguous rules to ensure that the directive on the posting of workers is not compromised, not least as regards the options for monitoring.
It must also be made clear beyond any doubt whatever that this services directive does nothing to compromise services of general interest in terms of their quality, the universal provision of them, or their affordability. Mrs Gebhardt has already referred to the need for this.
From within the Presidency of the Council, all eyes are now fixed on your House, as the Presidency, and the Council as a whole, look forward to the outcome of the first reading with great interest, and, if as large a majority as possible were to be achieved, that would be particularly helpful in terms of the draft’s further progress within the Council. With that in mind, we also welcome the initiatives and efforts of the two big groups in your House to achieve broad consensus by means of a good compromise, especially on controversial points, in which respect they have evidently been successful.
Once your House’s plenary has voted, which it will do the day after tomorrow, that is on 16 February, it will be for the Commission to take an active role in the codecision procedure. The Presidency will – in close cooperation with your House, but of course also with the Commission – be pressing for an even-handed directive, one that will to a large degree take into account the misgivings that have been voiced about the present proposal while also creating the legal basis for a functioning internal market in services that will make the best possible use of our potential for growth and job creation. We have now been informed that, according to two studies – one from Copenhagen and the other from Vienna – the possibility exists of the services directive resulting in the creation of some 600 000 jobs."@en1
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