The hard task of building Europe

The editorial writer Jacques Hillion looks back at the evolution of the European directive on the liberalisation of services. "Its opponents ... seized upon it and put it front and centre in the debate over the European constitution. With a now well-known result: the triumph of the 'No' vote in France and the Netherlands. Today, the constitution is dead, Europe is limping, in search of a future, and the Bolkestein directive is partly responsible for bringing about this gloomy predicament. ... In neither camp, whether left or right, do we hear a party-line consensus defending or refuting the compromise proposed by the European parliament's two most important parties. ... It is legitimate to wonder how a text that caused so much opprobrium has made its way so nicely through Europe's arcane legislative process. Yet despite all its ups and downs, this directive has demonstrated that the EU still has some spring in its step."     

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