Revised services directive due in April

A revised text of the EU services directive could be ready by April, European Commissioner for the internal market Charlie McCreevy said in Dublin yesterday. However, he added a cautionary note: "There are a lot of ifs and buts."

Mr McCreevy was speaking after addressing the National Forum on Europe in Dublin Castle. "We hope to have the revised text by the end of April, which is going to be a mammoth task with all the amendments and everything," he said.

This would go to the Council of Ministers and, if approved at that level, back to the European Parliament for a second reading.

Asked if the process could be completed by the end of the year, he said: "It would need a very, very, very fair wind. It is possible, but I would put inverted commas strongly over 'possible'."

In a speech to the forum entitled Global competitive challenges and the role of the single market, Mr McCreevy said: "For a considerable time, it has been fashionable in Brussels-type circles to be pessimistic about the [ European] Union, about its future, about enlargement. Across the continent, where opinion-formers meet, all is doom and gloom."

Challenging this view he said: "Despite the critics and the doomsayers, as a continent and as a union, Europe is adjusting to new world realities. There are sometimes lapses and missteps, but the message of reform is getting through."

Councillor Deirdre de Burca of the Green Party said her party regretted that the Commissioner was the only guest speaker.

Forum chairman Senator Maurice Hayes said all parties were represented on the steering committee. "We do try to provide a balance," he said. This was done over a series of meetings.

Fine Gael's Nora Owen said Mr McCreevy had "perfected the concept of reverse popularity" because the more unpopular things he did, the more popular he became.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the European Parliament had approved a "watered-down" services directive but even this opened up public services to privatisation.

In a speech for delivery at Trinity College Dublin last night, Mr McCreevy welcomed the parliament's vote on the directive: "It was decisive and the revised proposal I will be bringing forward will be meaningful."

He added: "In a small economy like Ireland, we only need to excel in a small number of high value-added areas to make a real difference to our country's continued prosperity and success."