Madam, - Sinn Féin's Northern Ireland MEP, Bairbre De Brún, is seriously misleading about the recent European Parliament vote on the EU services directive (Opinion & Analysis, March 3rd).
The Bolkestein/McCreevy proposal would certainly drive a race to the bottom in working conditions, public services, and consumer and environmental protection, if left unamended. However, the Socialist Group and Labour Party strategy - to build a consensus for fundamental change of the proposal - is working. The amendments we negotiated with the European People's Party guarantee that the directive will respect labour law, collective agreements and fundamental rights such as the right to strike. Core public services, transport, healthcare and social services are excluded as well as sensitive areas such as employment agencies and private security.
Crucially, the directive will not deal with the liberalisation or privatisation of public services or interfere with the right of governments to decide how their public services should be organised or funded; curiously, Sinn Féin abstained on that particular amendment.
The parliament rejected the controversial "country of origin" principle, which would have applied the regulations of the home country of the service provider in the country where the service is provided. In its place, we agreed that the laws of the country of destination should apply. For Sinn Féin to describe this fundamental change as cosmetic is a flight into unreality. The ETUC, representing 60 million European workers, has described the outcome as "a major victory for workers". The European Anti-Poverty Network and the European Social Platform also welcomed the progress to date. But Sinn Féin, naturally, knows better.
The parliament's vote is only the first in a series of readings in both the parliament and the Council. The task now is to ensure that our amendments are defended, and built upon. And the European Parliament can use its veto if we are not satisfied with the final outcome.
Preventing a race to the bottom of course requires more than just a rewriting of the services directive. The potential misuse of temporary workers employed by agencies to deliver services; the virtual non-implementation of the posting of workers directive, which governs the temporary secondment of staff to Ireland; loopholes in Irish laws with regard to self-employment; and the totally inadequate system of workplace inspections are just some of the issues that need to be addressed urgently in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland.
Could I be so bold as to enquire what Sinn Féin is doing in Northern Ireland about these issues? - Yours, etc,
PROINSIAS DE ROSSA MEP, Labour European Office, Liberty Hall, Dublin 1.