International

Today, the Environment and Public Health Committee of the European Parliament held a vote on a large number of proposed amendments to the Directive on Services in the Internal Market, the Bolkestein Directive. By the time the Committee had done its work, there was almost nothing left to amend. A majority of members turned out to be in favour of throwing out the so-called Country of Origin – the heart of the Directive – principle in its entirety. In addition, a proposal completely to exclude health care from the scope of the Directive won a clear majority. Kartika Liotard, Member of the European Parliament for the Socialist Party of the Netherlands (SP), and ‘draftswoman’ in charge of coordinating the Environment Committee’s report said, “This is a big victory. I was quite hopeful that the vote would go well, but this exceeded all our expectations.”

The EU Services Directive authored by former Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, which aims to liberalise all service industries, makes an exception of the transport sector. In Article 2 it states that transport services stand outside the scope of the measure. This is all well and good, but unfortunately there’s a sting in the tail, and it is one which means that the Bolkestein Directive would, despite Article 2, offer the enterprising an opportunity to put transport under the hammer.