SEGREGATION YESTERDAY, SEGREGATION TODAY, SEGREGATION FOREVER:

Sharp EU division arises on services (Paul Meller and Graham Bowley, March 4, 2005, International Herald Tribune)

A sharp division broke out in the European Commission on Thursday after it bowed to political pressure to weaken a proposal intended to create a single Europewide market in services.

The move raises the specter of France and Germany - which have balked at a key aspect of the plan because they believe it will harm workers' rights - holding up further European integration.

The law was designed to break down national barriers in the market for services - which account for around 70 percent of the region's economic activity - so that service providers like lawyers, advertising consultants, plumbers and pharmacists could work outside their country of origin. Central to the proposal was a rule that services providers could abide by the law in their own countries when operating elsewhere in the 25-member European Union.

It was one of the centerpieces of the new focus on jobs and growth - the so-called Lisbon Agenda, which European leaders will discuss at a summit meeting in Brussels this month - of the commission president, José Manuel Barroso.

In recent weeks, however, France and Germany have taken the lead in a grouping of countries that includes Belgium, Sweden and Austria in balking at the proposal, which they contend water down worker rights and "dumb down" social protections like pension rights and minimum wage across the EU. Many left-leaning members of the European Parliament also oppose it.

Specter? It would be a godsend.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 4, 2005 7:51 AM