Brussels, 14/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - With the European Spring Summit approaching (22-23 March), which will be focusing on the Lisbon process, the Initiative for Public Services in Europe (ISUPE) is hoping that Heads of State and European governments will invite the European Commission to draft a European Charter on Services of General Interest (SGI).
This charter will focus on: maintaining access for all to essential SGI such as e-mail, energy, postal services, financial services, healthcare; European regulatory coordination, in order to avoid unfair trading and the maintaining of missions of general interest and their funding on a footing that endures.
The ISUP explained in a press release that that diagnosis in the “Kok” report on relauching the Lisbon process was fair, as it highlighted the need for research. But the observation of the high-level group, chaired by former Dutch prime minister pointed out that there it is “insufficient support by the strength of its proposals”. The report is not “fully aware” of the role that certain instruments could play for helping expansion of modern SGIs at a European level, such as universal broadband internet access and the need to develop regional and social cohesion. The ISUPE insists that in order accomplishing the missions of general interest would facilitate the fight against the already perceptible imbalances within the Union, which discriminates against the elderly and those less integrated.