The way the European Parliament debated, amended and endorsed the services directive confirmed that we are in the presence of an encouraging example of European democracy in action (see my column in issue 9130). It is understandable that until the last moment, every MEP fought to defend measures they approved of, but at the end of the day, the big political parties felt a reasonably balanced solution (imaginative too, and we have Eveylne Gebhardt and Malcolm Harbour to thank for that) had...