Directive on Services in the Internal Market
In March 2004, the European Commission published a proposal for a Directive on Services in the Internal Market as part of its strategy to achieve the goals of the Lisbon Strategy. The aim of this proposal was to remove administrative barriers hindering the free movement of service providers and to thereby complete the internal market. However, the proposed Directive proved to be highly controversial in many European countries and was perceived by some as a threat to the European Social Model. It was feared that the Directive would lower social standards, reduce the protection afforded to workers and lead to the liberalisation of public services.
The AER responded to the proposed Services Directive by insisting that certain service sectors should be removed from its scope of application. The AER believes that health, social, cultural, educational and audiovisual services are not of a pure economic nature, because they aim to serve the public interest. Regions should therefore retain the right to decide how to organise, finance and provide these services in order to best serve the interest of their citizens.
The amended proposal for a Services Directive recently published by the European Commission takes into account a number of the AER's proposals. The entire health and audiovisual sector, as well as the majority of social services, have been removed from the Directive's scope entirely. Additional safeguards have been introduced in order to fully take into account the public interest objectives of cultural and education services.
Resolution of the AER Presidium 17/02/2006
AER Committee B position 21/04/2005
The European Parliament adopted its final opinion on the draft Services Directive during its Strasbourg plenary session on 16/02/2006. It supported the AER position that health, social, cultural, education services should be removed from the scope of the Draft Directive, due to their special features as services provided in the public interest.
Further information on the activities of the European Parliament are available on the web page of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO).
EP opinion 16/02/2006
All documents relating to the Services Directive can be found on the website of European Commission.
2006 amended Commission proposal for a Directive on services in the internal market
2004 Commission proposal for a Directive on services in the internal market
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