Brussels, 20/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The reaction of representatives of public services and enterprises with public participation to the vote in the first reading of the Gebhardt report on the services directive is broadly positive (see EUROPE 9133 on the vote in plenary and 9134 on other reactions). Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, the General Secretary of the European federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), welcomes the “political recognition of the fundamental role of public services in the European social model”, but says that there is now a need to clarify how the directive will affect the sectors which have not been excluded from its scope of application, such as water and education, for example. EPSU, which announced that it will work closely with the European Trade Union Confederation to ensure that “everyone in the EU has access to good quality public services”, is asking the Commission to “take this signal from the European Parliament and outline and inclusive definition of social services in its communication on social services of general interest on 20 April”. As for the Parliament, it should put the emphasis on “a legal framework on services of general interest”.
Caspar Einem, the President of CEEP (The European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and Enterprises of General Economic Interest) is demanding the same this, believing that services of general economic interest should be excluded from the services directive (some of them already are, but not all: NDLR) and they should be given “a separate legal framework ensuring respect for subsidiarity, the freedom of choice of the bodies which benefit from democratic legitimacy in the Member States and a high quality of services provided”. The CEEP also insists that local and regional authorities should have the freedom to organise services “in a way which responds to the needs of their citizens”.