Brussels, 30/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The proposal of directive aimed as far as possible at harmonising national legislation on the distance selling of financial services has made life difficult for the Internal Market/Consumers Council, which met in Brussels under the presidency of Britta Lejon, Swedish Minister for Consumer Policy. During the evening, the issue, which has been on the Council table since 1998, still did not seem ripe for a political agreement because of the persistent opposition of five Member States (Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal). In the knowledge that the directive on electronic commerce should be transposed in January 2002 (a text that provides in the case of dispute for the applicable law to be that of the country where the service provider is established and not the country of residence of the consumer), these countries dread, at that date, having to give up their high level of consumer protection in the transitional period for greater harmonisation of national legislation. To reassure them, the Presidency proposed that the Commission should, in a declaration, pledge to provide guidelines on the national rules that a Member State would be authorised to maintain from January 2002. The five reluctant members felt that such a solution would not provide a legal guarantee.