discriminatory and proportionate. Companies would still be free to provide services in other EU countries but must respect the labour, health, safety and environmental standards of the host country, not their country of origin, removing the key objection of the left and unions. A spokesman for the centre-right EPP said its members would back the compromise and try to tweak it to remove a member state's ability to bar foreign service providers on the grounds that they contravene social policy or consumer protection. Critics had warned that clause would give protectionists a free hand to erect fresh barriers. The 90-member liberal group also wants those grounds ditched along with public policy, security, environment, and public health, though it is unlikely to succeed and would then back the EPP's more modest amendment, party sources said. Keeping services of general economic interest in the bill is also a core demand of the liberals and, with centre-right backing, is expected to be met. Hard-left members of the assembly said they had little hope of scuppering the bill, which they will vote to reject outright. "We are probably moving towards a majority vote in favour of the EPP and (socialist) compromise," Francis Wurtz, floor leader of the 41-member hard-left GUE/NGL bloc, told reporters. European 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.
