21/02/2006

Certain sectors, which already depend on EC legislation, or sectors that are strongly specific to an individual country, do not fall within the domain of the Bolkestein directive. Exempted sectors include health, transport, electronic communications, gambling machines, national lotteries and the audiovisual industry (including cinema).

The main question before the vote was whether or not a subtle distinction would be made between public and private audiovisual services if the services provided were entirely comparable. In the end, no such distinction was made. The entire audiovisual sector continues to be exempt from the directive, unless something unexpected was to happen during the remaining voting stages. Member states can continue their policy of tailored support, including clauses that involve territoriality, linking the awarding of aid based on local spending.

In fact, it was very much a "soft" version of the Bolkestein directive that was voted through in Strasbourg on February 15 by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), dealing with services and their free cross-border circulation within the EU.

There was determined political mobilisation aimed at the very heart of the project: the clause dealing with respect for the laws of the country of origin. For example, a Polish worker could be employed elsewhere in Europe under the same wage and working conditions that apply in Poland.

The vote was passed by a large majority, 394 to 215 (with 33 abstainers), with two very different groups making up the directive’s detractors. The first who found the text watered down and, in the end, emptied of its very substance (free exchange) while those at the other extreme, who still fear the creation of unfair competition in the targeted services (in particular, services considered to be of a social nature) as a consequence of the very disparate national laws, are concerned over renewed "social dumping”.

This recent vote is a crucial step although the directive must go through further stages before it is adopted once and for all: a vote by the European Council of Ministers and then by the European Commission itself. President José Manuel Barroso has already stated that he will take into account the amendments voted through by the MEPs.

The notion at the heart of this directive is to stimulate, by free circulation across a vast range of services, a genuinely interactive European market. It clearly points out to national governments "the outlawing of the imposition of discriminatory or disproportionate administrative formalities". As each country studied the text, some wanted to treat certain services differently for their "common good", which would require a measure of protectionism by the state.

However, the voted text clearly states that there will be two different categories: services for the common good considered "economic", to which the directive will apply strictly, and those services for the common good considered "pure", which can remain exempt from the "deregulation" which the European market wants to achieve. Those services in the first category, truly affected by "Bolkestein", include utilities (such as water, gas and electricity) as well as waste disposal, tourism, leisure (the creation of theme parks) and even real estate.

Among the services in the second "unaffected" category are security companies, temp agencies, and social services (added during the examination period by MEPs under pressure from demonstrators).

In press releases, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), who have remained strongly committed to the exemption, reacted positively to those aspects of the text from Strasbourg that relate to their sector.

(Translated from French)