Civil Society, Economy & Trade, Europe, Headlines, Labour

LABOUR-EU: Unions Challenge Directive on Services

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Nov 10 2004 (IPS) - Trade unions are coming together to protest EU proposals on liberalising services in the internal market.

Members of the European Parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee are due to debate the so-called Bolkestein directive Thursday. The directive proposes the “liberalisation and deregulation of all service activities in Europe.”

The directive was named after internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein who submitted the proposal to the European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, in January this year. A final verdict on the directive is expected next July.

If approved by the Parliament, the proposal will open up the EU internal market in all services offered to companies and consumers such as advertising, recruitment, trade, cleaning services, construction, telecommunication, financial services, and services directly offered by the government.

Many trade unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say that if the directive goes ahead public services, workers rights and consumer rights will be compromised.

Lobby groups are preparing to voice concerns at a protest outside the parliament Thursday.

The groups argue that the new law will affect workers’ and citizens’ right to basic social services such as medical care, education, transport and telecommunication.

Members of the European Transport Workers Federation (ETF) which represents some three million workers from 39 European countries will participate in the demonstration alongside other trade unions and NGOs.

ETF general secretary Doro Zinke says her members are particularly concerned about the “country of origin” principle under which service providers would be subject to the laws of their country of origin, and not to the laws of the country where the services are provided.

Zinke says such a principle will not “attack” workers wages, but it will limit unions in negotiating better wages. “It will be almost impossible to try to find someone in the country of origin to negotiate wages,” she told IPS.

Zinke is also concerned about the effect that the country of origin principle will have on the health and safety of transport workers.

“Workers will have less health and safety rights as there will be no control of these issues in the countries of origin,” she said. “Although the European Commission says that the directive will lead to less bureaucracy, we are concerned that if there is no bureaucracy there will be no control.”

The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) which will also attend the hearing says Thursday’s parliamentary hearing marks a “critical” moment in the decision process.

This is an opportunity to ensure that trade union fears about the impact of the directive are made clear, it says.

“We haven’t been able to debate the issue in full so far, so this will give us the opportunity to test the waters,” Penny Clarke, local and regional government officer at EPSU told IPS.

EPSU, which represents some eight million public services workers throughout Europe has been rallying support within the European Parliament in recent months so that MEPs will express their own concerns about the directive at the hearing.

Clarke says momentum against the proposal is growing.

“There is increasing opposition to the proposal,” she said. “It is clear that even supporters of the directive can see the problems with it. The ideology of the proposals seems very attractive, but once you look into it in detail you can see that it won’t have any good effects.”

EPSU says even though the European Commission is aware of the shortcomings of the directive, it considers it too late to withdraw the proposals.

“The Commission doesn’t want to waste a year by withdrawing the directive, but we think it would be quicker doing that instead of trying to handle the problems with the current draft,” she said.

Clarke says EPSU is also concerned about lack of clarity in the text.

“There is an absence of definitions in the directive, so it is difficult to get a good grasp of what it is actually trying to say,” she said.

Her union is urging the commission to consult with civil society over their concerns.

“Even organisations that initially welcomed the draft services directive added, almost in the same breath, a long list of questions and concerns,” she said. “This list has become progressively longer. It is legitimate to ask at what point will the concerns outweigh the principled support for the directive."