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The European Parliament adopted a watered-down bill to open Europe's services market to cross-border competition on Thursday after a bitter struggle between free marketeers and supporters of social protection.
The EU legislature adopted a heavily amended version by 394 votes to 215 with 33 abstentions after voting to remove the most disputed "country of origin" principle, under which companies that provide services in another EU state would have been allowed to do so under their home country rules only.
Companies will be free to provide services in any EU country but must respect the labour, health, safety and environmental standards of the host country -often stricter in western Europe than in the new east European member states.
"We have turned this directive upside down. We have managed to focus on the social protection of our citizens and our member states," said German socialist lawmaker Evelyne Gebhardt, who piloted the key amendments through the house.
The two main factions in the EU assembly, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the socialists, backed the changes mainly to appease west European labour unions.
The European Trade Union Confederation, which brought 30,000 members to demonstrate outside parliament on Tuesday, called the result "a real victory for European workers". However, employers and some east European politicians voiced dismay.
The main EU business lobby, UNICE, said parliament had "deprived the directive of most of its capacity to create growth and jobs in Europe". The law is likely to come into effect around 2010 or 2011.
Source: Reuters
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