Brussels, 21/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - Catherine Colonna, the French Minister for European affairs, reacted from Rome last Thursday to the vote at first reading on the Gebhardt report on the "services" directive. "The first thing to be said is that as from today, we can no longer talk about the Bolkestein directive", she said, adding that the text "is now very close to what we were calling for: the principle of the country of origin has been abandoned, buried; the applicable social rights will be those of the host country (...); public services are preserved and sensitive sectors (social and health care services) are (...) excluded". On the next step in the legislative procedure, "we expect the Commission to take greater account of the Parliament vote", taking "the time to think about a good proposal", she added. And she pointed out that France is the "third largest exporter of services in Europe, the fourth in the world: it has everything to gain from increasing its market share in this sector".