Brussels, 21/01/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's public services intergroup was officially set up on Wednesday 20 January. It will comprise around 50 MEPs from six different political groups and 13 member states. “The European Parliament must embrace the new legislative powers in this area granted it by the Lisbon Treaty. This intergroup will also be open to all social partners and to local authorities. The aim is to come to concrete proposals to promote quality public services in Europe and make them more secure,” said the group's French socialist chairwoman Françoise Castex in a press release. Intergroup member Jean-Luc Bennahmias (ALDE, France) is pressing the Commission initially to publish “an aide-memoire on the application of the protocol on public services” and, thereafter, to adopt a draft “directive setting the status of services of general European interest”. French ecologist Pascal Canfin has promised that the intergroup will keep a close eye on the pledges made by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and Commissioner-designate for the Internal Market Michel Barnier. Barnier noted, for example, the legal uncertainty of the position in which European local authorities find themselves in the area of serviced concessions (see EUROPE 10056).
The intergroup will focus on issues related to public services: assessment of the “Monti-Kroes package” on state aid in the form of public service compensation, public contracts, public-private partnerships, the territorial cohesion objective in the Lisbon Treaty, fundamental rights, and implementation of the services directive. At its next meeting in Brussels on Wednesday 24 February, it will consider new provisions in the treaty (Article 14 and Protocol 26) and will discuss the legal security of services of general economic interest not governed by a sectoral directive. Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkanende will be the guest at this meeting. (M.B./transl.rt)