Brussels, 16/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) as well as thirteen French social services and health associations call on MEPs to vote in favour of excluding their activities from the scope of the directive on services in the internal market, amending along these lines the Gebhardt report as adopted by the internal market committee during vote at first reading, scheduled for mid-February in Strasbourg.
The CEEP stresses the “need to restore a balance in the Commission proposal, amended by the Parliament, in a bid to achieve greater reconciliation between the internal market and the general interest”. In support of “elimination of all unjustified obstacles to the fundamental freedoms recognised in the Treaties”, it recalls that “rules of competition but also those relating to the internal market apply to services of general economic interest (SGEI) provided that they do not run counter to the proper performance of missions of general interest”. It must be acknowledged that “because they are subject to specific requirements of general interest, the common law rules governing services cannot be applied to them as they stand”. The CEEP gives three concrete examples: 1) the obligation for authorities to grant a mandate to the provider for exercise of the management of services of general economic interest; 2) the obligation for the host Member State authority to impose on the service provider specific public service obligations designed to guarantee the achievement of general interest objectives, based on the law of the host country; and 3) SGEI management must be subject to “an authorisation or approval regime” authorised in sectoral directives and recognised by the Court.
Thirteen French social services and health associations have called on French EP representatives to exclude their activities from the services directive. They consider that keeping social services of general interest (SSGI) from the scope of the directive “is not acceptable”, mainly because this would run counter to the stance held by most Member States, including France.
Furthermore, the legislative and regulatory framework of such services does not aim to hamper Community exchange but rather protect vulnerable households through specific obligations when it comes to content, quality and continuity of service. According to the thirteen organisations, the proposal for a services directive as amended by the internal market committee will concern a broad range of SSGI: service to persons (incapacity, disability, the old and elderly, children, family, unemployment, the homeless), the fight against exclusion, social housing, and a number of social security systems that the Court has described as economic activities. The Commission is preparing a specific communication for SSGI for April 2006 to be discussed on 20 April in Vienna during a European conference on social services organised in the context of the Austrian Presidency.