Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in Brussels Saturday against a proposed European Union directive to open up public service markets, which unions said will drive down social and labour standards and threaten jobs. John Monks, secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation, which called for the march, said some 50,000 demonstrators from much of Europe took part in the protest, which was designed to send a powerful message to heads of government meeting here next week.
The trade union movement said that if the measure is approved it would provide ample opportunity for competition and privatisation in all public services, including those of general interest such as education and health.
The measure, first introduced by Dutch former EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein, is a key plank in the EU strategy to revive the so-called Lisbon agenda, adopted in 2000 with the aim of making Europe the world's most competitive society by 2010.
The directive aims to revitalise the economy by enabling service providers to compete anywhere in the 25-member EU and take full advantage of its market of 456 million people.
A main target for the unions was the "country of origin principle" contained in the directive, which would allow a business to operate in another country under the laws of its own.
The unions say this will drive standards and wages down to the level of the poorer countries and encourage businesses to set up their headquarters in countries where the laws are weakest.
The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, has infuriated the unions by saying there was no question of abandoning the country of origin principle. "In Italy, we are already at war with the liberal policies of (Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi," said an Italian union demonstrator, Sergio Sinchetto. "We do not want to see a directive that extends this policy on the European scale."
The discontent over the directive appeared to spill over and threaten approval of the proposed European constitution, which is subject to popular referendum in several countries including France, where for the first time this week a majority of voters indicated they would reject it. The country of origin principle has been rejected not only by unions and left wing parties but has been criticised by governments in several member states with highly developed social welfare structures, including France, Germany, Belgium and Sweden. In France, unions went out on strike earlier this month against threats to public services.
Free marketeers are challenged by those who argue that services of general interest to the public should be protected from commercial pressure.
"The European Union is not only about capitalism, but about workers and the 19 million without jobs," said a banner carried by a group of marchers from Slovenia.
"In a market where everything is liberalised, we are an anomaly, we the public service workers," said French demonstrator Bernard Soula.