European Union ministers brokered a landmark deal last night to boost growth in the bloc by opening its market in services to cross-border competition.
Ministers said the deal showed the bloc was back on track after a year agonising over the French and Dutch rejection of referendums on the EU constitution - which were partly blamed on a pre-watered down version of the services rules.
"We show citizens we can take decisions which will help growth and employment," said Martin Bartenstein, economy minister for EU president Austria. The rules should create "hundreds of thousands" of jobs, he said.
Lithuania was the only country to abstain from backing the deal, with all the other 24 members voicing support without a formal vote in a result that handed Austria a major political coup in the final weeks of its presidency.
EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy welcomed the decision to adopt the new rules, which will make it easier for providers of services as diverse as catering, software and plumbing to ply their trade across the bloc with fewer restrictions than now.
France, a top critic of the pre-modified proposal, was won over by an agreement to introduce the new rules over three years instead of the usual two for EU measures. In return, it accepted that some legal services should fall within the scope of the new rules.
French Europe minister Catherine Colonna said local workers and consumers would be protected, referring to early fears that the anecdotal Polish plumber and other lower cost workers from "new" member states would undercut local workers.
The bill goes back to the European Parliament for a final reading by December.
In March, EU leaders agreed in principle to base their position on a deal cut in parliament - which has a joint say with member states - that watered down the European Commission's original proposal.