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Hard-left members of the European Parliament said on Wednesday they had little hope of scuppering a disputed plan to open the European Union's vast market in services to cross-border competition.
Senior members from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the socialists, which dominate the assembly, struck a deal last week to amend a core part of the so-called services directive.
"I think we are probably moving towards a majority vote in favour of the EPP and PSE (socialists) compromise," Francis Wurtz, floor leader of the hard-left GUE/NGL bloc, told reporters. The bill covers services as diverse as hairdressing, software engineering and catering.
The European Commission, which proposed the legislation in a drive to boost jobs and growth, said it would accept a compromise between the two main parties to water down the bill if it had broad support in a vote on Thursday.
Late on Tuesday, the centre-right and socialist groups said they would vote in favour of the compromise negotiated by their leaders last week.
Wurtz's group will vote to reject the bill outright. "The motion to reject is unlikely to go through tomorrow... This is just the first vote and this is going to go on for months and months. There will be more battles," Wurtz said.
The hard left has defied calls from John Monks, leader of the European Trade Union Confederation, to back the compromise or risk ending up with a more liberal version.
Trade unions feared the original bill would have undermined west European jobs and social standards by letting in low-cost east European firms, but the compromise has gone some way towards reassuring them such "social dumping" will not happen.
The socialist group reiterated on Wednesday it was ready to back the compromise.
"The overall comfortable position of the group is that it broadly supports the compromise and we are optimistic in the vote tomorrow it will go through and we will have a position of parliament based on this compromise," socialist group spokesman Tony Robinson said.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso hopes to put the elements of a compromise to an EU summit next month and make a detailed new proposal in April.
Services make up more than 60 percent of the EU economy but companies face barriers when trying to operate outside their home country.
The bill pits free marketers such as Britain and the new east European member states against social projectionists in countries such as France, Germany and Austria, where voters fear the proverbial "Polish plumber", a symbol of a migrant prepared to work for low pay undermining the country's social model.
The compromise aims to reconcile supporters of a free market and of social protection by allowing member states to bar any service provider on several grounds, provided such intervention is non-discriminatory and proportionate.

Copyright Reuters, 2006

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