Impact presses for amendments

EUROPE:Irish MEPs were urged by the State's biggest public sector union to support amendments to the services directive agreed between the European Parliament's two biggest groups.

Impact claimed the directive would undermine workers' and consumers' rights, and threaten public services, unless it was "radically amended". It held a protest outside the Dáil yesterday to coincide with the march of trade unionists in Strasbourg.

The Impact protest comprised a photocall recalling the 1929 Chicago St Valentine's Day Massacre, designed to illustrate the "potential massacre of consumers' and workers' rights" contained in the directive. The union said it welcomed the compromise agreed last week between the European People's Party and European Democrats and the Socialist Group. These would help protect public services and uphold the rights of consumers and workers. Without the changes, Impact claimed, the directive would allow overseas companies to trade in Ireland "on the basis of their own minimum legal standards".