PARLIAMENT SHINES BUT WHAT ABOUT SERVICES?

• Position: Laws

Whatever one thinks of the content of the Services Directive redrafted this week by the European Parliament, it must go down as one of the MEPs' brighter days. Despite boos and hisses from various corners of the House, the mood was mostly celebratory after a two-to-one majority backed the compromise hatched between the EPP and Socialists. There was even the remarkable sight of a jubilant rapporteur Evelyne Gebhardt receiving a bouquet of flowers and embracing her EPP nemesis Malcolm Harbour.

The role of Parliament according to the EU Treaties is to amend legislation, yet here - virtually unprecedented - it has de facto usurped the Commission's role as the creator of EU law. A much more constructive role than the one Euro-MPs played several weeks ago when they again blocked a move to open up Europe's port services to competition without suggesting any alternative. The Commission and EU Council of Ministers have been paralysed on the services proposal since last year when it became a political pawn in the French referendum on the EU Constitution. They were desperately searching for a way forward and now they have one. Both have said they will use the new draft as the basis for future negotiations. This means, for better or for worse, the ultra-liberalist vision of Frits Bolkestein has been ditched in favour of something more 'social'.

Which begs the question what is this Directive for? We should not lose sight of...