Brussels, 14/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - Shortly before leaving for his visit to New Delhi on Thursday and Friday, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy welcomed the European Parliament's resolution on trade in services. This text, which was adopted in Strasbourg (see other page), "recognises the efforts made by the Commission in terms of transparency and supports the position of the EU", he said, reaffirming his support for "the desire expressed by the European Parliament to have a greater role in the definition of European trade policy": "trade agreements have an impact on the daily life of our citizens, on their jobs, on what they eat, on their environment" and "it is therefore important that the Parliament has a say on this", he said.
Mr Lamy reminded his listeners that the Union's objectives in these negotiations were: - defending "our offensive economic interests, which are considerable in the services sector"; - defending "our European model of society (including public services)"; - giving developing countries an opportunity better to integrate in the world economy "in accordance with the model of development that they have chosen". He also clarified the triple principle underpinning the Commission strategy: - it is no longer possible to separate goods from services because, "without access to high-quality systems which can provide financing, insurance, accounting, telecommunications and transport, our economies cannot be competitive", which applies to developed and developing countries alike; - the EU has "much to gain" from negotiations in trade of services; - services are the "Achilles' heel of many developing countries", (they are fully aware of this, as shown by the fact that more than half the requests the EU receives come from countries such as Kenya, India, Mali, Gambia, Mauritius or Brazil).
"These arguments obviously do not plead in favour of total liberalisation, or even deregulation or privatisation of services", he said, pointing out that 'there are a large number of services which are, quite rightly, strictly regulated, and incentives for trade in services must respect the regulatory framework established by the competent public authorities".
These negotiations, which apply solely to trade in services, include the principles under which each country is free to decide which sectors will be open to international competition and which will not; there is no reciprocity of commitment; public services which are part of key government functions (law, etc) are not subject to the agreement.
The General Agreement on Trade Services (GATS) is "neutral on the definition of public services, their organisation or their financing"; and "this is the best guarantee for Europe to be able to benefit from further opening of trade in services while preserving its European model of services of public interest", said Mr Lamy.
He added: "let's not mix up the two different debates; on the one hand we have a debate within the EU on the degree of liberalisation that we want on a number of sectors that were protected until recently (energy, transport, post) and which relates to the way we want to organise our society. On the other hand, we have an international negotiation which relates to trade in services and not to their organisation". Lastly, coming on to the "maximum" transparency of the preparations, Mr Lamy confirmed his commitment to make public the entirety of the proposal recently made by the Commission, once the Council had given its agreement (see EUROPE of 12 March, p.11).