Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress he has made on services liberalisation at an EU level; and if he will make statement.

Matthew Hancock, Minister of State for Energy, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, Minister for Portsmouth: Following the introduction of the EU services directive, the UK has been a leader in pushing for consistent implementation across member states. More recently, the UK published a non-paper on further services liberalisation which has been widely shared in Europe. Its recommendations have attracted considerable support. We have seen positive signals on services liberalisation from the new Single Market Commissioner, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, in her keynote speech on 18th November and services liberalisation also features in the Commission’s recently published ‘Investment Plan for Europe’.

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