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Green paper "Services of General Interest" - Website of the EU-Commission |
Brussels, 21.10.2003 Services
of general interest - In favour of European framework regulations that bind together economic, social and regional criteria The EUCDW's Fundamental Position
The EU Commission's Green Book defines the standards that Services of general interest must ensure, namely "that certain services are made available at a specified quality to all consumers and users throughout the territory of a Member State, independently of geographical location and, in the light of specific national conditions, at an affordable price". It is acknowledged that "some services of general interest are not fully satisfied by markets alone (…). Therefore, it has always been the core responsibility of public authorities to ensure that such basic collective and qualitative needs are satisfied (...) wherever market forces cannot achieve this". The following points can be derived from these two statements:
However, for the reasons mentioned above, this framework must view internal market criteria as only one element amongst many. The demand for privatisation as a principle already infringes in this very area on the spirit of existing EU treaties; a fact that will in future be strengthened further by incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights (Article 36). All regulations applicable to the internal market, competition and State aid must come second to the aim of ensuring that the public and the economy are provided with these services to a high level of quality and at affordable prices. Only then will the goal be achieved, to which the EU Convention also aspired: the European Union as a community of peoples, an area in which people live their lives together. More than an internal market - a community of common values. It is therefore to be welcomed, that the EU Convention regards the active role played by not-for-profit institutions, voluntary associations and humanitarian organisations as an important component of the European social model. Set against this background, there is a serious contradiction to be found in the Green Book. On the one hand, it points out the great importance of ensuring the supply of services, of affordability, quality and safety standards, user and consumer rights, and the environmental regulations that need to be adhered to (and determines that, in principle, these areas are to be regulated by Member States), while on the other hand there's the irrefutable reference to the dominance of the treaty's competition provisions. And in connection with this, the talk is then only about the Member States' 'regulatory freedom', no longer about general regulatory legislation. The discussion that has now started about this is therefore doing some good. It ought to clarify terminology, standards and criteria. And lead to framework regulations that - in terms of Services of general interest - will also apply to the internal market, competition law and government aid legislation. However, these framework regulations should not enter the legislative process until the European constitution has finally been adopted, as the constitution has to act as the ultimate renunciation of a purely economic Europe and thus form the foundation for an EU, in which people can live their lives and companies can produce goods competitively.
The
European Union of Christian Democratic Workers (EUCDW) consists of 23
workers' organisations from 15 countries and is an association of the
European People's Party (EPP).
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