Public services are currently at the heart of political debate in Europe. The debate, whether the role of the state is to provide essential public services or whether they should be opened up to the private sector, is one that will ultimately have a major influence on the lives of people in the UK. On 20 January, Stephen Hughes MEP, and Brian Synnott, European Public Services Unions, were keynote speakers at a conference hosted by the Northern TUC at the International Centre for Life.

Brian Synnott drew attention to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) petition for public services, available for signing at www.epsu.org.

TUC Regional Secretary, Kevin Rowan, said: "Without doubt membership of the European Union has facilitated many improvements in workers’ rights, from health and safety to consultation and environmental protections, and north east businesses benefit significantly from the large and expanding European market place. We need to ensure that the single market does not undermine one of the corner stones of a successful UK economy, good quality, universally provided public services."

Without proper safeguards at a European level, competition rules could mean that all public services, including health and education, need to be subject to competition with the European wide private sector, ultimately reducing public service provision in all areas. The decline in services that opening up to the private sector might bring is a major concern to the TUC. Kevin Rowan said: "The ’hawks’ in Europe would like to enable more private sector companies to provide services, individuals want security of provision, trade unions want to keep public services in the public sector. These issues go right to the heart of the European Union and clear safeguards need to be in place to protect universal public services for all EU citizens."

Speech