The European Parliament voted on Wednesday to reject an EU bill to open port servicesto greater competition, after the legislation sparked violent protests by dock workers this week.
The lawmakers voted by 532 to 120, with 25 abstentions, to kill the proposals from the European Commission.
It was the second time the parliament has rejected the reform, having voted down a similar bill in 2003. Workers feared job losses from the bill, which would have scrapped existing monopolies on cargo handling by terminal companies and allowed shipping firms to appoint independent contractors to load and unload vessels.
EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot's spokesman said that the EU executive may rework the proposals at a later date.
Mr Barrot said he was disappointed the bill was rejected out of hand and that there was no vote on an amended text, which he said the EU executive would have accepted.
The parliament's president, Josep Borrell, said it had been clear the bill was going to be rejected and that the Commission should have withdrawn it before Wednesday's vote. "We have already said 'No' to it once. They (the Commission) took the directive back to their kitchen and heated it up again and served up the same thing," Mr Borrell said.