Brussels, 01/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Laurent Ghékiere, the French L'Union sociale pour l'habitat's delegate to the EU has listed five reasons to exclude the Services of General Economic Interest (SGEI) from the field of application from the draft directive on services in the internal market (the “Bolkestein directive”, which the Barroso Commission is prepared to amend).
These reasons include: the need for the political debate on the Community structure for SGEI and social services of general economic interest at the current stage; imprecision between economic or non-economic nature of the services affected; the problems involved in the application of the principle of country of origin; the failure to take into consideration of specific authorisation systems as a preliminary means to impose public service obligations. On this last point, the Union sociale pour l'Habitat referred to European legislation which allows specific authorisation systems as a way of imposing a public service obligation, notably for directives 95/18/EC on railway services, 97/67//EC on postal services and 2003/54/EC on electricity and gas (as well as the ruling by the Court of Justice in February 2001 (the Analir case: C-205/99). This ruling stipulates that providing regular services of maritime cabotage can be subject to a preliminary administrative authorisation but only if there is a real need for a public service is demonstrated and if this authorisation system is necessary, in proportion to the goal pursued and founded on objective and non-discriminatory criteria and if it known in advance.
If the draft directive is amended, the Union sociale pour l'habitat would agree to the idea of the explicit integration of the SGEI into its field of application. The new draft directive should be recognised in a specific article on compatibility of authorisation systems as a way of imposing public service obligations. The SGEI will be excluded from the principle of the country of origin and incorporated into the principle of the host country, while waiting for a specific Community structure.