European Parliament votes on services Directive

The long-awaited vote in the European parliament on the proposed services Directive took place at a plenary session in mid-February. MEPs voted to amend the text substantially, removing the controversial country-of-origin provision, excluding labour law from its scope and expanding the number of sectors that will not be covered.

On 16 February 2006, the European parliament (EP) gave a first reading to the proposal for a Directive (the so-called Bolkestein Directive) on services in the internal market.