The rules haven not changed, but they have been clarified for the member states' use of public-private partnerships (PPP). This at least is the stated aim of the statistical office of the EU (Eurostat) and the EIB, with the presentation, on Thursday 29 September, of the practical guide to the accounting treatment of PPPs, which may have an effect on the calculation of the government deficits.
With as many proponents as detractors, public-private partnerships – which are a means of financing whereby public authorities can use private service-providers to fund and operate equipment providing a public service – have always been a subject of controversy. Sixteen members states use them, most of all the United Kingdom and France, mobilising €65 billion over the last five years. The EIB has an important part to play in this. However, there are plenty of examples to show that the budgetary risks taken by the public authorities can lack due care or the proper calculations.
PPPs, which are used by both local and central authorities, have macro-economic consequences. The decision to use these partnerships is therefore often influenced by the accounting treatment applied to them in order ultimately to determine the impact of a project on government debt and government deficit. And as this treatment has been shrouded in uncertainty, this guide is needed, said Commissioner Marianne Thyssen, who oversees Eurostat, at a joint press conference with the vice-president of the EIB, Jan Vapaavuori.
This guide does not change the rules applied by Eurostat, which are laid down in Regulation 549/2013 on the European system of national and regional accounts. However, these rules are highly complex, Vapaavuori took pains to stress. Eurostat can even overturn a project, as was the case with a tram system in Liège (Belgium), often because the risks to the public authorities of an investment have been miscalculated. The guide therefore aims to be a bridge between statisticians and practitioners, a tool that will aim to provide the public authorities with considerable assistance in developing their projects with greater peace of mind and to generate more investments on the ground, by making the existing rules slightly less complex.
This is the stated objective of the European Commission, which stops short of describing these partnerships as the holy grail of economic recovery, yet firmly believes that they are an important way of boosting investment in Europe in full respect of the Stability and Growth Pact. Such partnerships will take a predominant role in the framework of the Juncker plan, which is soon to be extended at double capacity, Thyssen stressed.
The 152-page practical guide can be consulted at: http://www.eib.org/epec/resources/publications/epec_eurostat_guide_ppp (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)