Services Directive is a missed opportunity, says Martin

AS EU ministers inched towards agreeing the Services Directive in Brussels, Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin said the draft law was a missed opportunity.

Nicknamed the Frankenstein Directive by critics who said it would cost jobs and lower standards throughout the EU, a watered down version is close to being agreed.

Mr Martin said the original directive had the potential to create many more jobs in Ireland than the compromise version.

However, he argued strongly at yesterday’s Competitiveness Ministers’ meeting for all member states to agree the draft before them.

It’s important to get a deal,” he said.

The service industry is a vital part of the Irish economy accounting for the bulk of employment. Ireland had 2.2% of the world trade in services in 2004 compared to just 0.5% in 1999.

“We felt the directive should have accommodated trade in services more than it will. We would have preferred Irish companies to have been able to trade with less inhibitions,” Mr Martin said.

The proposed directive would create 500,000 jobs EU-wide and generate €40 billion.

Mr Martin, speaking to the Institute of European Affairs in Brussels last night, said: “The failure of all of us to spell out the benefits more clearly, earlier, undoubtedly contributed to doubts and fears which clouded the debate on the directive up to now.”

He denied that he did not support and explain it sufficiently in the beginning and said that the scaremongers grabbed the headlines.

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy encouraged the European Parliament to come to a compromise earlier this year saying the original had no chance of becoming law.

Ministers yesterday argued over the safeguards to be put in place with the directive to ensure member states do not erect new barriers to service companies from other EU countries, and on the need for countries to make progress reports on implementing the directive.