On Tuesday the Minister for Economics Martin Bartenstein welcomed the European Commission announcement that during the Austrian Presidency, up until June, political agreement on the disputed Services Directive will be sought. "I welcome the new dynamism on the part of the Commission with regard to the Services Directive" said Bartenstein on Tuesday to the APA. He also described the announcement by the Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel on the integration of the social partners as “most desirable”.
In Vienna last Monday the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso assigned the matter the highest priority. After more than two years of very controversial discussion on the directive Barroso has thereby introduced a new element of dynamism, according to Bartenstein.
After the vote in the Internal Market Committee at the end of 2005, the first reading of the proposed Directive in the European Parliament is now scheduled for February. Up until now the Commission had announced the submission of a new proposal for April or May, whereby further work on the directive, but still no political conclusion, would have been possible under the Austrian Presidency, the Minister declared.
Yesterday, however, Barroso specifically spoke of a new proposal on the key elements of the directive in good time for the spring summit in March. The Commission had thereby followed up on the multiple invitations of the Competitiveness Council. The new proposal by the Commission would however have to convincingly exclude wage and social dumping and exceptions such as health and social welfare services but nonetheless allow for services of general interest to be included within the framework of the directive, said Bartenstein.
"The creation of a functioning internal market for services in Europe is one of the few real growth opportunities which Europe can create from within itself” remarked Bartenstein. For that reason the Services Directive was “one of several stones in the mosaic of more growth and at the same time, therefore, of more employment in Europe“. The possibility of integrating the social partners would be proposed by the social partner summit which would, in the run-up to the EU spring summit, gather around one table the presidents of the European trade unions’ and employers’ associations together with the Presidency and the Commission itself.
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