The Christian Democratic party is opposed to any efforts to further liberalise the EU services directive – a measure which allows professionals such as lawyers, builders and hairdressers to offer their services anywhere in the EU, parliamentary CDA leader Sybrand van Haersma Buma told website nu.nl.

According to the Guardian newspaper last month, prime minister Mark Rutte and British prime minister David Cameron discussed plans to revive the directive, which has been blocked by France.
‘We need to get [the EU’s] growth engine going again,’ Rutte told the paper. ‘We want to form a mini single market for all the professional services, and then obviously, the hope is that all 27 countries would like to join, even if some are currently vehemently opposed.’
But Haersma Buma told nu.nl this would be disastrous for the Dutch services sector.
‘We are trying to get people at the bottom of the jobs market into work and that will never happen if Eastern Europeans come and work here at below minimum rates. That is not how we should wish to compete,’ he said.
The CDA and Rutte’s conservative liberal VVD form a minority cabinet.