McCreevy Sings Praises Of Services Directive

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

13 June 2005

In an interview with the EU Observer news service last week, Internal Market Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy sang the praises of the controversial services directive, and urged the older EU members to allow the ten new members full access to their markets.

"When enlargement came, what did the core member states understand that they were agreeing to? One of the fundamental freedoms of the whole Treaty is the freedom of movement of people and people being able to work," he explained, continuing:

"The countries who signed up for the deal coming in will feel short-changed that those that are in the club for a while will want to keep the club as it was. That's not what the deal was."

The proposed legislation, which contains a provision that would allow European firms to establish in other member states but to operate under the rules of their own country has been strongly condemned by France and Germany, which fear that this will result in unfair competition and 'social dumping'.

According to EU Observer, Mr McCreevy argued that opening up the European services sector, which accounts for some 70% of the European economy, would "release the economic potential" of Europe, allowing it to compete more effectively with China, India and the United States.

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