Brussels/Paris, 21/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - During a contribution in a conference and debate in Paris on 18 October on the subject of "Public Services: a Role for Europe", President Prodi asserted that the public services were, "essential constitutive elements of the Union and project for society". H also declared that it was necessary to define the optimal role of the public authorities in the guarantee of running services of general interest and making the content of Article 16 of the Treaty more substantial. Mr Prodi explained that in order to ensure that no citizens would be deprived of basic services of the best possible quality, "a new coherent Community framework is needed and a better explanation of…the reports and responsibilities between the different levels of government". Romano Prodi explained that the Commission will soon be publishing its Green Paper, which should enable it to open up a huge consultation exercise and the examination of a variety of questions linked to policy, self-regulation of general interest services, analyses and explanations on the differences between the different sectoral legislation and determine whether it is necessary to develop a general Community framework for the general interest services. President Prodi believes that there are many themes to tackle, some of which would be included in the work of the European Convention. He also posed the question of whether the disciplines of this sector should be improved and the issue of public services linked to EU trade action on a global level. He also wanted to know whether the EU should: define a universal European service level; a new framework directive; the elaboration of a new framework directive on general interest services and introduce new amendments to the treaties. In this connection Mr Prodi considers that a modification of Article 3 could be envisaged in order to introduce a reference there to general interest services in the objectives of the Union.