Signing of South East European Energy Treaty is ‘irresponsible and hypocritical’
Press release
(25 October 2005) The UK Presidency, the European Commission and the countries of South East Europe will sign the Treaty that establishes a South East European Energy Community in Athens today, 25 October. This Treaty forces the liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets in South East Europe, exposes citizens to competition and does not include any social dimension whatsoever. More worryingly, the Signatories have deliberately excluded the European Parliament from giving any prior opinion on this initiative;
“The magnitude of the sheer irresponsibility of this act is hard to grasp” says EPSU Deputy General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan. “Liberalisation is foisted on theses countries without any social pillar despite the fact that the Commission and UK presidency know full well the internal market will destroy jobs, drive prices up and make the South East European energy companies prey to transnational capital”
What could have been a moment of glory for the European model of cooperation, promoting peace, stability and social progress, is turned into a travesty and demonstrates all that is wrong with the European Union: not only ignoring the people and the need to promote jobs and cohesion in this still fragile region, but ignoring the mistakes of the EU’s own energy liberalisation experiences (namely 300, 000 jobs lost and rising).
“South Eastern Europe needs stability, jobs and democratic accountability”, continued Mr. Goudriaan. “The Commission and UK Presidency has sent a clear message that they believe facilitating transnational energy companies outweigh the need for local control. .
The energy unions of South East Europe have developed a Platform of Trade Union Demands. These include:
- The countries of the region should sign up to the EU’s Fundamental Rights;
- The relevant European social legislation needs to be implemented and the social dialogue put in place;
- National Social Action plans should accompany the implementation of the Energy Community. The job loss will enormous, and based on EU figures (300.000 already ! ) could amount to 30-40% of the work force in countries that already have high unemployment
- a moratorium on privatisation of the utilities and public debate and referenda if privatisation is appropriate. Ask the people.
Read the Platform of demands of the South East Europe trade unions.
Read the statistics on the internal market, the evaluation, employment figures and EPSU’s position.
Read the job figures
For information please contact Jan Willem Goudriaan, + 32 2 2501080 or send an email to epsu@epsu.org
EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC. 8 million public service workers and their 213 trade unions are members. They organise workers in health and social services, local and national administration, energy, water, waste.
In the energy sector EPSU organises in electricity and gas, in production, transmission, distribution, retail and auxiliary services. Our members work in power plants using all fuels such as nuclear, hydro, coal, renewables, gas and wind. Our employers are small and large public (state and municipal) and private companies.
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