Brussels, 18/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - Last week the European Commission published a synthesis report on the contributions it had received during the public consultation launched in the context of its Green Paper in May 2004 on public private partnerships (EUROPE 8699). It announced a specific communication for the autumn, which would produce a European initiative on service concessions. According to the report, there is a “clear majority” in favour of a European initiative clarifying rules applicable to concessions for services and public private partnerships (PPP) (“institutionalised”) and which lead to the creation of partnerships that are distinct legal entities. On the other hand there is no consensus on the form, binding or voluntary, of such an initiative. The opposition to the horizontal initiative, which would cover all PPPs, according to the Commission, enjoys a small majority. Unsurprisingly, most public sector operators are for an extension of in-house initiatives. Private operators are in favour of restricting this notion, as recently confirmed by the “Stadt Halle” ruling of the European Court of Justice (EUROPE 8872). According to this ruling, the allocation of a market to a company, which is partly publicly and privately owned, does not constitute an internal operation and should therefore, be subject to competition. The synthesis report also demonstrates that the idea of a European observatory on PPP is making headway.
The Commission has received 195 contributions from the public authorities from sixteen national governments, private and public bodies and private companies. We can see that there is a high level of participation from five Member States (Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the United Kingdom), whereas no contributions came from Cyprus, Malta, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg or Slovenia. Public private partnerships are being discussed in the context of services of general interest and the role of the state, as less of an operator but more of a regulator and inspector. They are present in a large variety of sectors such as network infrastructure (transport, water supplies, new technologies), waste management, health, education and security. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and display a number of different characteristics: length of contract, mode of financing, distribution of roles and risks between partners. The Commission report is available at the Directorate General for the internal market and services website: info: http: //http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/publicprocurement/pp_fr.htm ).