Brussels, 30/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 30 May the Socialist group at the European Parliament unveiled a proposal for a draft directive on services of general interest (SGEI) in an echo of the political agreement the day before at the Council on the directive on services in the internal market (see other article). Martin Schulz the German Social Democrat declared that in this area, “our colleagues from the group have made a huge effort to draft a text for the directive”. Schulz believes that they have to underline the link between “the internal market and the right of territorial bodies to autonomy”. According to the PES group, a directive would give local authorities the legal security to organise and fund SGEI in response to citizens' expectations.
Harlem Désir, the French Socialist said that, “Europe has to be balanced” and walk on “two legs”, namely “the market” and “social cohesion”. He hoped that “this principle also applies to services that have a commercial dimension and which are also part of the general interest”. He added that, “the directive on the SGEI that we are proposing should prevail over a horizontal directive” for all services in the internal market. Luxembourg Socialist Robert Goebbels regretted that, “the Commission has been dragging its feet for years” when at a local level there was an “urgent need”. He pointed out that “conclusions from the European Councils of Nice, Laeken and Barcelona” demanded action from the Commission in this area. He said that in the absence of concrete initiatives, “the Court of Justice had been used on several occasions to reach a decision”, while a directive would mean less need to go to Court.
The directive text elaborated by the PES does not attempt to introduce a European definition of Services of General Economic Interest. It draws up a list of common criteria on the broad diversity of these services observed in the EU. Harlem Désir cited criteria such as “universal access, affordable prices, security and equal treatment”. When a local authority decides that a service is a SGEI on the basis of these criteria, it needs to do so in “complete transparency”. There must also be a possibility for contesting such a decision in the event of any abusive practice. In its elaboration of the text, the PES collaborated with the Committee of the Regions, Social Partners (EPSU) and representatives from European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation (CEEP).
On the same day, the Greens at the European Parliament presented their positions on services of general interest in view of the future parliamentary report by Bernard Rapkay (PES, Germany) on the specific Commission White Paper (EUROPE 9161). In a press release they declared that,” The general interest must prevail over rules on competition. For us, this is where the key question lies, even more so than the distinction between services of economic and non-economic interest, because the borders between these two categories are difficult to establish”. They added, “In order to guarantee legal security, a framework directive is needed on services of general interest. We will actively participate in the debate launched by the draft framework directive presented today by the PES. The fact that the 'compromise' on the services directive includes the SGEI in its scope, makes adoption of such a framework directive even more necessary”.