Most of the participants at a discussion in the European Parliament this week reacted hostile to the new Directive proposals on the award of concession contracts for public services. At the event which was collectively organised by the Austrian Trade Union Federation and the German Federation of Trade Unions as well as the German services trade union ver.di and the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour, MEP Heide Rühle of the Greens informed right at the beginning that not only the labour organisations had problems with the Commission text on the Directive on the award of concession contracts, but also the industry.

Only recently, a representative of the Federation of German Industry had informed her of the scepticism in respect of the proposed text, said Rühle. According to the MEP, there are a number of issues in the proposed Directive which had to be criticised, for example putting the service concessions on the same level as the building concessions, or the lack of consideration for the risks of the public sector. Such a complex proposal would not be helpful, said the MEP.

Erhard Ott, Member of the Federal Board of the trade union ver.di, as well as Thomas Kattnig of the Independent Trade Union of Civil Workers of Defence and Public Order and Heidrun Maier-de Kruijff, Secretary-General of the Austrian Association for Public and Social Economy (VÖWG) also voiced their criticism of the Directive on the award of concession contracts. According to Ott, there are many areas where public services are provided via concession contracts, for example in ports, in transport, the health sector, in respect of social services, water, energy and waste disposal. Germany had 6,211 water supply companies, for which next year alone about 1,000 new concession contracts had to be negotiated. It was important to bindingly consider social standards in respect of the legislative measures. Thomas Kattnig pointed out that the Commission with its legislative proposal lost sight of the primary law, as Art. 14 TFEU would give public services plenty of scope. The liberalisation of the water supply by the backdoor is strictly rejected. Austria has submitted a subsidiarity objection in respect of the Directive proposal. Heidrun Maier-de Kruijff emphasised that the laws in question were made by EU institutions but that the municipalities had to live with them - one should therefore ensure that the gap between them would not get wider, warned Maier-de Kruijff. According to the Secretary-General of the VÖWG, an intelligent in-house regulation was required; the invention of something completely new was not called for. Unfortunately, this Directive would not even give a hint of the simpler legislation (better regulation) often announced by the Commission. On the contrary, the proposal would only create oligopolies, commented Maier-de Kruijff.

The competent rapporteur on the Service Concessions Directive in the European Parliament, MEP Philippe Juvin of the European People's Party, assured that he too was opposed to privatisation by the backdoor. It should be enshrined right at the beginning of the Directive that the public sector should have the freedom to decide whether a service is provided via concession. Providing services in-house, also in association with several communities, should be possible. The primary law had to be taken into account; however, additional transparency was also necessary.

The Directive proposal was also strongly criticised during the discussion with the audience: according to one trade union representative, the proposal would not tackle the problems; the social conditions would only be aggravated. In response, Juvin assured that tenders shall not only be decided on the basis of the lowest price.

MEP Evelyne Gebhardt of the Social Democrats drew attention to the fact that apart from the proposal for a Service Concession Directive, problems might also arise with regard to the two other legislative proposals on awarding concession contracts. If the Concession Directive would simply be rejected, the two Award Directives would apply instead. This would be dangerous and a reason for the Social Democrats not to reject the Concession Directive right from the start but to amend it accordingly.

Another speaker brought the environment into the discussion, which would also be put at risk by this legislative proposal. All participants agreed that wage and social dumping had to be prevented.

Rapporteur Juvin will present his draft report on service concessions on 26 June. The competent Internal Market Committee will vote on the report only at the end of the year; the first reading in the European Parliament will probably be completed at the beginning of 2013.