Brussels, 02/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Confrontations Europe association, chaired by former MEP, Phillipe Herzog, organised a day of debate on 21 October at the European Parliament, which facilitated discussions on the progress of the Services of General Interest (SGI) issue.
Jérôme Vignon deputy director of DG Employment and Social Affairs at the European Commission spoke in defence of the draft directive, which was overall well received by those at the first round table. Pierre Jonkheer MEP (Greens/EFA, Belgium, was, however, very cautious and called for a real debate at European and national levels. Without opposing the accomplishments of liberalisation, Philippe Herzog, denounced the dogmatism that they see this directive faced with, and which without any real analysis, states that liberalisation increases competitiveness. At the second round able on the White Paper from the Commission on services of general interest, several participants expressed their regret at the lack of continuity in the Commission's action since publication of the White Paper last April. This reaction was due to the fact that the a whole series of texts had an impact on the SGI but which did not take into account a certain number of common principles established by the resolution from Parliament on the SGI and White Paper.
The final word went Claudie Haigneré, French European affairs minister. She was pragmatic but supported the services directive, claiming that it was positive for French enterprise which had a keen interest in this area.