Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-028"
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"en.20050413.2.3-028"2
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"Mr President, it cannot be denied that the past European Council was actually dominated by an external factor, that being the referendums on the European Constitution that are due to be held in various European countries. It is in the context of those referendums that we should see the decision to review the services directive. It is, in fact, very much open to question whether this Bolkestein directive will actually be re-examined or amended once the referendums are over. It is, after all, a fact that European decisions are taken over the heads of the public almost as a matter of routine, and that there was, in the past, more than one occasion when such old-fashioned concepts as truth and democracy were not taken entirely seriously.
As far as the Bolkestein directive is concerned, we have to say that it has ambiguity written all over it. Even European law specialists hold fundamentally different views about how this matter can, or will, actually be fleshed out in reality. It is a fact that the very broad definition of the concept ‘service’, coupled with the country of origin principle, will lead to drastic changes to states’ – and in some cases federal states’ – powers and responsibilities. Moreover, the proposal undeniably impacts on states’ powers and responsibilities in terms of social security, health care and education – all areas to which, in my modest opinion, the principle of subsidiarity should strictly apply. According to Mr Bolkestein, only the rules of the country of origin apply to the service providers. It is a complete mystery to me how it is possible to avoid distortion of competition or even social dumping with those rules, and I also wonder whether this is of real benefit to the European consumer.
Allow me also to be particularly sceptical about the hundreds of thousands of new jobs that this directive is supposed to create in Europe. Along with everyone else, I am still waiting for the millions of jobs that those self-same economists promised us would be created when the euro was introduced. I would reiterate that I have no faith whatsoever in the Council’s promise to make subtle changes to the Bolkestein directive. I have no faith in the sudden conversion to the ‘own people first’ principle of so many Left-wing politicians who are anxious about the outcome of the referendums on the European Constitution. As in the case with Turkey, EU policy is often a string of deceit and shameless lies, and I fear that, with the Bolkestein directive, we are getting more of the same today."@en1
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