Recommends that Storting says yes to Services Directive

Today, the Government submitted a proposition to the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) on incorporation of the EU Services Directive into the EEA Agreement. The ministers from the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party expressed their dissent when the matter was dealt with in the Council of State.  

“The Services Directive will make it easier for Norwegian companies to sell their services and establish operations in EU countries,” commented Minister of Trade and Industry Sylvia Brustad. “This will help to ensure that social resources are used more effectively as well as increasing economic growth and employment. In addition, the directive sets out an obligation to cooperate on supervision. This will give us better opportunities for monitoring service providers than we have today.”  

Around 80% of Norwegian trade is with EU and EEA countries. The directive will facilitate cross-border trade in services. “With our open economy, we are totally dependent on international trade working properly. We have to prevent Norwegian companies from being discriminated against because they are subject to different rules from those that apply to companies in the countries we trade most with,” Ms Brustad continued. 

Ms Brustad emphasised that the Services Directive will not affect the Government’s efforts to prevent social dumping. “The directive does not require us to abolish public monopolies, and it does not prevent privatised services being returned to local government administration. This is stated explicitly in the directive.”

All the reports on the Services Directive that the Government has commissioned – both within and outside the public administration – conclude that it will not have any appreciable negative consequences for Norway.  

The proposition that the Government submitted today recommends that the Storting consents to the EEA Joint Committee deciding that the Services Directive should be incorporated into the EEA Agreement.

“In connection with the decision of the EEA Joint Committee, we will put forward a declaration emphasising that the Services Directive will not prevent us from pursuing an ambitious policy to prevent social dumping,” said Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. 

A minority of the Government ministers (the ministers from the Social Left Party and the Centre Party) expressed dissent and made the following statement:  

“After an overall assessment, we have concluded that we cannot give our support to the recommendation that the Storting consents to the EEA Joint Committee deciding that Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market should be incorporated into the EEA Agreement. We are particularly concerned that, in our view, the Services Directive could undermine efforts to prevent social dumping and jeopardise labour rights, and we also believe that it would limit national autonomy in important sectors of society and create uncertainty about whether basic social services could still be provided by the public sector. The provisions of the directive are open to interpretation by the European Court of Justice, and it will not be possible to guarantee that the case law of the Court will safeguard the considerations that we believe are important.” 

Consequences in Norway
The deadline for implementing the directive is 28 December 2009. Implementation will require adaptations in the Norwegian public administration in connection with cooperation on supervision and the establishment of a contact point for providers of services in connection with the portal Altinn.no.  

It will also be necessary to make certain amendments to existing legislation. None of these will be substantial. In connection with the public consultation that was held from July to October 2008, the Government proposed that certain provisions in the directive should be implemented in a separate act on services. This will be followed up by a proposition to the Odelsting, which is scheduled to be submitted to the Storting during the 2009 spring session.