The European parliament is expected to vote in favour of a proposed EU directive to liberalise the services market in Europe this week.
A deal agreed between the two biggest parties in the parliament, the group of the European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED) and the Socialist Group, means that the draft law should pass its first legislative hurdle on Thursday.
The directive requires only a simple majority to pass its first reading in the parliament, although its proponents will hope for a large vote in favour to provide momentum for the gruelling EU legislative process ahead.
The directive, which has been bitterly opposed by European trade unions, proposes to extend the single market for goods that already exists in the EU to the services sector.
Currently a host of legal and technical barriers prevent service providers, everything from plumbers to real estate agents, from setting up shop in certain EU countries. The draft Services Directive proposes to remove these barriers and liberalise the services market, which accounts for 60 per cent of Europe's economy.
The compromise deal reached by the two biggest political groups in the parliament is based on a series of amendments to the directive designed to meet the concerns of socialists and trade unions. They fear liberalising the services market will lead to a flood of cheap labour moving from eastern Europe into western Europe, thereby eroding working conditions and wages for workers in the original 15 EU states.
At a mass demonstration of 35,000 protesters in Berlin on Saturday, Michael Sommer, head of the DGB German trades union federation, reflected the concerns of the left when he accused the European Commission of wanting to limit workers' rights through the law.
"They want a liberal Europe, not a social Europe," he said. More protests are expected in Strasbourg this week when MEPs vote on the directive, which is being proposed by the internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy.
However, the amendments tabled by the EPP-ED and Socialist group in the parliament have raised concerns among the business community who fear too many parts of the services market will remain closed and protected.
