(18/04/05) Groene opinie over rapport Dienstenrichtlijn - een stap in de goede richting, al blijven er vragen

• 2005-04-18

Guarded welcome for Gebhardt report:
Greens seek majority to change services directive

Statement on behalf of Heide Rühle, Pierre Jonckheer, and Jean Lambert MEPs in reaction to the presentation of the preliminary report on the draft directive on services:

"The Greens/EFA Group welcomes Evelyne Gebhardt's report; it is heading in the right direction and forms a good basis to allow Parliament, in first reading, to radically modify the European Commission’s approach to the liberalised provision of services. The Greens now call on all political groups and MEPs who have previously expressed concern to pool their efforts and build a majority in favour of changing the Commission’s draft directive."

"The amendments proposed by the preliminary report exclude from the scope of the directive services of general interest, and in particular, health and social services, education, culture and audiovisual services. They are therefore consistent with the objective of preserving the central role of public services. The discussions about the scope of the directive demonstrate the urgent need for the Commission to propose a framework legislation in order to preserve services of general interest and guarantee the conditions for their public funding. The Greens endorse the Rapporteur's rejection of the country of origin principle as a general basis for the free movement of services."

"While we have given a guarded welcome to the preliminary report, we regret that it fails to call for a withdrawal of the 'Bolkestein directive', which is the only feasible way to correct its shortcomings. Gebhardt's radical amendments prove that the Commission’s proposal is not a realistic basis for discussions. We recall our preference for a purely sectoral approach and our proposal to define a short, positive list of purely commercial sectors which should be covered by a services directive. The Greens are thus surprised by Evelyne Gebhardt’s statement that, 'listing the services which currently do or do not lie within the scope of the directive is the wrong approach, and is an inappropriate instrument for dealing with an innovative sector such as services'. In her own amendments, the Rapporteur suggests such a positive list of sectors (taken from the GATS Central Products Classification) to be established for sectors which should be covered by the mutual recognition principle, which raises the questions, if it is possible to define a positive list for this particular purpose, why is it not used to define the directive’s overall scope?"

"The Greens also question the Rapporteur's proposal to replace the country of origin principle with a 'mutual recognition principle.' There is a lack of clarity in her report about the exact definition of this principle, and therefore about which laws would apply to the concerned services sectors. We reiterate our preference for a 'host country principle' as long as there is insufficient upwards harmonisation of access to, and the exercise of, a service activity. Before taking any legislative initiative, a peer review process should be initiated in order to progress towards upwards harmonisation, which is the only realistic way of achieving an adequately regulated single market for services."