Diluted directive

Polish officials and business-advocacy groups were disappointed last week with the European Parliament's adoption of a watered-down version of a bill opening up the EU's services market to cross-border competition.

The bill requires member states to eliminate laws forcing providers of services, such as advertising, hairdressing or software engineering, to open a branch in their country or seek special authorization to operate. Now, countries will only be able to bar service providers on grounds such as security or environmental policy.

Most controversially, however, the adopted version of the bill omits an original section in the draft allowing service providers to operate in other member states under the rules of the country in which they are based. The 'country of origin' principle was feared by trade unions from richer EU countries, who said that it would give an advantage to workers from countries where regulations were less strict.