Brussels, 21/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - Several interest groups have reacted through press releases to the presentation of the revised strategy for the internal market (see EUROPE 9547). These reactions focus primarily on the sectoral approach advocated for the Europe-wide regulation of services of general economic interest (SGEIs) and for social services.
The European Union of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) does not think that the internal market package, which correctly identifies the future economic challenges, responds to all of the expectations of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), because the Commission mainly focuses on analysing current initiatives and does not announce any wide-ranging political proposals. The organisation regrets the fact that the Commission document only mentions “taxation policy” and “the fight against counterfeiting” in passing. The European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) acknowledges the “huge economic potential” of the internal market in facing the challenges posed by the emergence of countries such as “China and India”. It reacts positively to the idea of setting European standards at the international level, in particular those concerning the environment. However, “Europe also has to address a fundamental legitimacy gap between the European level and the level of regions and municipalities”, warns Secretary General Rainer Plassmann.
SGIs. The European Liaison Committee for Social Housing (CECODHAS) welcomes the inclusion of social services in the general communication on services of general interest (SGIs), in as far as the services provided by its members also, in its view, affect urban development, security and the social integration of minorities. The organisation nevertheless believes that social housing's place in the internal market can be better clarified, notably in order to respond to conflict between freedom of establishment and the need for social housing enterprises to be registered. “It is now beyond question that there is a sound legal basis for public services in the new European Treaty, despite what the Commission would like to think”, declared Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU). Recalling that it had collected “510 000 signatures” for its petition demanding a directive on SGIs, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) regrets that the Commission has missed an opportunity to guarantee respect for public services. The EU Reform Treaty could “help us achieve the same objectives”, said its general secretary John Monks. “Nonetheless a more detailed framework directive would have clarified the necessarily general intentions”, he added. He also warned that “the Commission will be accused of regarding public services as a derogation from internal market rules and as a promoter of more liberalisation and privatisation”. In the view of CEEP, the communication on SGIs does not bring “any progress” on the White Paper of 2004. The organisation deems it “not acceptable” that the European Court of Justice has become “more and more the legislator” on services of general interest. On this point however, UEAPME welcomes the fact that the Commission has brought an end to “a sterile ideological battle”.
Social services. On the subject of social, health, education and cultural services, “some question marks have to be put behind an extension of the current single market concept that the Commission is proposing”, CEEP says. It adds that “Europe is not only a market. Consumers are also citizens, and their welfare depends to a high extent on standards and guarantees that cannot be automatically delivered by the markets”. The French Collective on Social Services of General Interest expressed three concerns linked with such services (SSGIs). It laments the question mark over the proposal made by Commissioner Špidla in Lisbon in September of having a specific European strategy (EUROPE 9505). “The clarification of Community law applicable to SSGIs and the gradual drawing up of a framework adapted to their specific characteristics is necessary, faced with the process entered into by the member states of modernisation and adaptation to new social and societal challenges, to the need to protect European citizens and their legitimate demand for solidarity”, the Collective comments. Nor does it enter into the Commission's approach consisting of “denying the problems of tension between certain internal market provisions of EU law and the accomplishment of social tasks of general interest implemented for the benefit of European citizens”. According to the organisation, “the real advances made in terms of the compatibility of state aid in the form of compensation for public services should be extended to issues linked to the internal market” and “the political process begun under the services directive with regard to dealing specifically with social services must be seen through to the end”. Recalling that the Protocol on SGIs annexed to the future European treaty is the result of a dispute between the Commission and the Netherlands on the universal dimension of an SSGI, the Collective deplores the fact that the communication “takes away all credit from the consultation process already initiated” and “from the launch of the open method of coordination on the issue of quality”. It also appealed to France, which will hold the presidency of the EU Council in the second half of 2008, to relaunch the political process on SSGIs. (G.B./M.B.)