L.S.,

Of course the whole services thing is very fascinating, but I can't be bothered to write something new about it. So here is the mail I sent to Julian Gonthier earlier this week:

"Short facts, which you probably already know: 1600 amendments tabled, 404 brought to the plenary last Thursday, 239 approved by the plenary. The EPP Shadow Rapporteur, Malcolm Harbour, has invited the Council to come with a political strategy on this dossier in the March economic summit. The way things are looking, there will probably be a political agreement (i.e. a deal but without all the language versions) in the June European Summit. The time limit is actually 3 (+1) months from the 16 of February, so even that would be a little slow. If you do the Codecision math, you end up with a conciliation in the German presidency, first half of next year, whereby the Conciliation Committee meeting could take place about this time next year, with the legislation being finally approved by Council and EP by the end of the German Presidency, in the summer of 2007."

Of course, as usual, this story is subject to the disclaimer that appears under all my e-mails:

"The views expressed are purely those of the writer and may not in any circumstances be regarded as stating an official position of the Council of the European Union" Clause de non-responsabilité: «Les avis exprimés n'engagent que leur auteur et ne peuvent en aucun cas être considérés comme une position officielle du Conseil de l'Union européenne»

Martin

P.S. Here they are, on the Parliament's website. My personal favourite is amendment 400 on article 17 (1). This amendment aims to except from the scope of the directive not only the distribution of gas, electricity and water, as in this Commission's proposal, but also the supply of these things. Now, supply isn't necessarily a very clear term, but insofar as it does not mean the exact same thing as distribution, it means selling. And selling gas, water and electricity is clearly not a service, so the amendment is clearly stupid.