PORT SERVICES: CHRONICLE OF A SHIPWRECK FORETOLD.

It's No in any language. MEPs are preparing for the second time in two years to throw out the proposal to liberalise port services in Europe. The guarded support enjoyed by the text until now among Christian Democrats and Liberals looked very fragile in Strasbourg in the plenary debate during which practically nobody spoke up for the pursuit of the proposal's legislative passage.

This No is quite logical since neither the substance nor the detail of the proposal have ever won many friends. Many believe the situation could have been very different had they been a genuine dialogue with stakeholders. However, dialogue has been most conspicuous by its absence. The proposal - in its current form - only exists because former Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio had a bee in her bonnet. Tabling a draft in October 2004 all but identical to the proposal buried by MEPs less than a year before - sparking much talk of "contempt" for democratic institutions - the outgoing Prodi Commission left its successor a monumental poisoned chalice.

What might initially have boiled down to a customary left/right clash gradually mutated into...