boosted economic growth, and would have increased product quality and choice for consumers. The Wall Street Journal estimated that the revised Directive would have failed in its objective: the liberalisation of services at the heart of the EU. D. Godefridi of the Hayek Institute wrote in le Figaro: "Services represent 70% of the European economy. In not liberalising these the EU remains below the objective of the founding treaties of 1957: there is no common European market. For ten years European economic project has moved backwards. On 30 May 2006 the European political elite buried the very essence of the European project". Opponents of liberalisation Left-wing and labour organisations maintained that the new version of the Directive was not as favourable to workers as it was made out to be. There was also concern that the "country of origin" principle would most likely still be applied by the European Court of Justice, as previous jurisprudence seemed to suggest. In particular, it was pointed out that member states would be prohibited from applying any kind of restricted authorisation to businesses in the fields covered by the Directive, which would, they claimed, make administration of labour laws close to impossible. Final revision On 5 April 2006 the European Commission presented a new version of the Directive to the Council of Ministers, including most of the modifications voted by the MEPs, in accordance with the codecision procedure. On 29 May 2006 the Council approved the revised text, which subsequently was resubmitted to the Parliament for its second and final reading. Approval and implementation The Directive, after being substantially amended from the original proposal, was adopted on 12 December 2006 by the Council and the European Parliament, and published on the Official Journal of the European Union on 27 December 2006 as the Directive 2006/123/EC. Therefore, the Directive on services in the internal market should have been completely implemented by the Member States by 28 December 2009. Although the final version did not include the "country of origin" principle, the Directive instead reminded Member States of the principle of free movement, while accepting inroads when free movement collides with other public interests. However, before making such inroads, authorities have to verify and recognize any protection already provided in the country of origin - under the mutual recognition principle, they need to take into account what takes place in other countries before proceeding. Implementation The