The European Commission intends to present a Communication, which will inform about the Commission's vision on the future of public services before the end of the year. Therefore, representatives of the European Parliament, the Commission, the Belgian Presidency and civil society recently discussed which rules should apply to services of general interest. The question, which services are of an economic nature and could therefore also be provided by private companies, is thereby playing a key role.

European Trade Union Confederation: the quality of services of general interest provided by private companies has deteriorated

Józef Niemiec, the Secretary General to the European Trade Union Confederation, commented in his introductory remarks that most public services had already been deregulated and that this was an ongoing process. Although it was correct that the productivity of services, which were now provided by private companies, had increased, it was, however, also a fact that prices for consumers had risen whilst old employment relationships were phased out and had been replaced by new ones, which represented significantly worse quality. Niemiec therefore urged the Commission to view public services not only from an economic perspective. What was needed at legislative level would be horizontal social standards.

Services of general interest under supervision of the neoliberal economic model

Harlem Désir of the Social Democrats was singing from the same hymn sheet: when public services were liberalised, promises had been made with regard to increasing efficiency and lowering prices. In practice, however, keeping these promises had been proven to be impossible. It was necessary to create separate rules where the basic needs of citizens were involved. Apart from that, the quality of services had to be ensured.

Marie-Christine Vergiat of the European United Left criticised that nowadays only the charitable sector would be regarded as a service of general interest, because the market would not be interested in it. The prices of public transport, for example, would rise constantly, whilst the service was deteriorating, said Vergiat. Public services were currently under the supervision of the neoliberal economic model.

Commission: internal market rules should also apply to public services

Commission representative François Arbault commented that the Commission had not adopted any form of ideology with regard to public services. The EU had no intention to call these services into question. The internal market, however, should partly also apply to the services of general interest. This was also a question of efficiency. The Commission would make an effort to unify rules and the principle of subsidiarity should be applied to a large degree. The quality of services had fallen by the wayside; therefore a framework should be created for the quality of services. However, he rejected a general Framework Directive.

Nutzenberger: Local authorities consider providing services of general interest themselves again, which are currently rendered by private companies,

Klaus Nutzenberger of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities referred right from the start to those public services, for which internal market rules had already been introduced. Many local authorities had encountered problems with services, which are now provided by commercial enterprises. In most cases, consumers were faced with services that had deteriorated. The social rights of the respective employees had been weakened. Many local authorities are now considering providing these services themselves again. The Commission was still required to provide answers to a number or urgent questions, for example, who would foot the bill if a private landfill operator terminated his contract or why the Commission does not do anything against the oligopoly situation, which has been created in many sectors, such as energy, Telekom or transport.

European People's Party considers its position

In her comments, Regina Bastos of the European People's Party referred in detail to the respective Communications, which have been published by the Commission. Services of general interest would be very important and the Commission had already specified which services had to be regarded as economic and which as non-economic. In addition, the Europe 2020 Strategy would also strengthen the public service sector. Commenting on the question which position the EPP would adopt, Bastos replied that she would wait for the publication of the Commission Communication at the end of October and then consider it.

Rapporteur de Rossa: discussing public services in multi taskforce

Proinsias de Rossa of the Social Democrats and rapporteur on social services criticised the comments of the Commission representative as inconsistent. First, he would say that he did not want to not bring ideology to the discussion only to talk in the same breath about the internal market being a good basis for services of general interest. The Commissioners were clearly committed to public services, said de Rossa. He is in favour of a multi taskforce, which should discuss this issue in detail. He suggests several Director Generals of the Commission such as the DG for Economic and Financial Affairs and the Environment, the civil society and social partners to become members of this taskforce. De Rossa is worried that that the austerity programmes required for tackling the crisis, might weaken public services. The rapporteur of the European Parliaments is clearly opposed to new legislation and regards a Framework Directive as necessary.

Belgian Presidency: considering the Lisbon Treaty in the discussion

In her speech, the Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health Laurette Onkelinx of the current Belgian EU Presidency emphasised that the issue would concern goods and values of society. That is why all groups affected should be heard. The current legal basis would be shaky. Article 9 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which refers to a horizontal social clause, should be taken into account. She would not know whether the discussion would result in a Framework Directive, a new legal basis, however, was definitely needed concluded Onkelinx.