EP yes vote for Services Directive increases need for balancing Commission proposal on Public Services
EP yes vote for Services Directive increases need for balancing Commission proposal on Public Services "The Commission has no excuse now to keep stalling"
Press Communication Immediate release, 15 November 2006
(15 November, 2006, Strasbourg) The Services Directive vote, which took place in the European Parliament today, marks the end of almost three years of debate and political manoeuvring. "It is now high-time for the European Union, and the European Commission in particular, to give equal weight and consideration to building a modern social Europe", said European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) General Secretary Carola Fischbach-Pyttel. "The European project must now re-engage with citizens through a genuine debate on a concrete legal text for public services in the EU," she continued. "Today’s vote in the European Parliament on the services directive should mark a line in the sand."
During the three years that encompassed the services debate, the EU has seen a drift in enthusiasm and a sense of disengagement from citizens. The focus on the single market and the original attempts of the Commission to include public services such as health and a wide definition of social services; has alienated many citizens who now question the EU focus. "Even in today’s debate there were unanswered questions. The Commission, in its clarifying statement, missed a golden opportunity to state that it will now give genuine consideration to the promotion of high quality public services. It really cannot keep stalling ".
The 2nd reading in Parliament was little more than a formality, with the European Peoples Party (EPP) having already given up its right to table amendments at committee stage. Key questions on Labour law, Criminal Law and particularly Social Services were addressed in a "clarifying statement" by the Commissioner for the Internal Market Mr. Charlie McCreevy. EPSU believes that the pledges within this statement will need to be monitored very closely. It is questionable whether they have any legal weight and indeed if they will apply to the following College of Commissioners. On the issue of social services there is still much confusion. The Commission has launched a consultation to define what is meant by "social services" but at the same time, with EPP support, it tries to include some social services under the scope of this directive. This confusion and contradiction means that a sector that the Commission has yet to define could be included in this key EU legislation.
EPSU is currently conducting a campaign for quality public services - quality of life. Further information is available at http://www.epsu.org/r/271
"EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC and comprises 8 million public service workers from over 200 Public Service Unions in 36 countries. We organise workers in health and social services, local and national administration, energy, water and waste. We are the recognised European social partner organisation in each of these sectors. EPSU is committed to building a European Union that promotes democratically accountable public services of the highest quality, within and beyond its borders. For more information on EPSU and our work please go to: www.epsu.org"
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