Strasbourg, 24/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday the European Parliament approved the European Commission's legislative programme for 2005 by adopting a common resolution from the EPP-ED, ADLE and UEN groups: 264 votes for, 201 against, with 37 abstentions. The PES, Greens/EFA and the GUE/NGL voted against and submitted their own resolution but did not succeed in amending this common draft in a way that was acceptable to everyone. On this occasion, the Left preferred, contrary to usual practice of compromise texts for obtaining a majority at the parliament, to stick to its positions (for the debate, EUROPE 23 February p 9). A small majority on each occasion saw the plenary rejecting the two amendments from the Socialist group calling on the Commission to modify the draft directive on services and submit a framework directive on services of general interest. A Socialist group press release notes that following the Goebbels and int'Veld reports, there was an increasing left-right rift at the European Parliament (EUROPE today, p 16 and yesterday p 14). We will publish the resolution in our EUROPE/Documents series.