26/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the German Liberal Jorgo Chatzimarkakis has welcomed the adoption by a convincing majority (34 in favour, 6 against) of the committee on industry of the EP of his report on services in the internal market. The FDP MEP, who hopes that things will also start to move within the committee on the internal market, which is competent for this issue, notes that “only the Communist group, and a few Greens, voted against my report” (see EUROPE 8930, 8931 and 8932 on the draft by German Social Democrat Evelyne Gebhardt, rapporteur on the directive). Central to the compromise proposed by Mr Chatzimarkakis is the proposal for a longer adaptation phase of up to ten years to allow highly regulated services to get ready to be opened up to reinforced competition on a liberalised market. The rapporteur was also pleased at having ensured that in the future directive, the principle of country of origin will not be applied when “security, public order and healthcare come into the equation”.