11 May 2007

Ennis, Ireland

European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) Brian Synnott Communication and campaigns officer

Dear friends, I am delighted to be able to speak to you on this occasion of your Biennial conference. I would like to thank Peter Nolan for this invitation. The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) represents over 200 public service trade unions. That amounts to over 8 million public service workers in Europe.

I would like to talk to you about developments in the European Union on public services. In particular I would like to talk about the EPSU campaign ‘quality public services - quality of life’. I speak to you at a time when there are serious question marks about the EU’s commitment to social Europe, and in particular to Public Services.

IMPACT has long been deeply involved in EPSU work. Indeed in March of this year it was IMPACT that launched the Irish part of the initiative www.petitionpublicservice.eu. The initiative of www.qualitypublicservices.ie is one of the best examples of how EPSU hoped to see universal, European wide issues, set in a national context, with immediately understandable examples. This is the hope of EPSU. That through national campaigns, such as “Public Servants - Frontline Quality, Backroom dedication”, using local examples, these European Public Service issues can be given a real, understandable face. This is the best way of overcoming our biggest challenge, which is to make a connection between the European proposals for public services and the local consequences.

Today I want to highlight this document and to highlight the EPSU response - what we are doing through our campaign ‘Quality Public Services - Quality of Life’ and through our petition www.petitionpublicservice.eu, which calls for a framework law for public services.

The framework law is designed to act as a foundation, which celebrates public services and doesn’t, like most EU law, see them as merely an obstacle to the full functioning of the market.

Since April of last year, EPSU has been conducting a campaign towards this aim. Our campaign is called ‘Quality Public Services - Quality of Life’.

Our allies, in this call are many and varied and include the Party of the European Socialists, the Public Service Employers, the European Cities organisation, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Left party (GUE-NGL), and the European Green Party.

The ETUC have launched www.petitionpublicservice.eu, which calls for signatures from ordinary trade union members, in support of a framework law. We hope, at the upcoming ETUC congress, in Seville in May, to be well on our way to a million signatures collected.

So far we have had over 60 national and local events in over 20 European countries, which have included actions that involve direct discussions of European public service issues.

On the petition for public services we have gathered over 300,000 signatures already. One of the interesting elements is the response we have received for our campaign in the new EU member states. In Romania for example, there have been over 90,000 signatures collected. This shows the willingness of individual citizens to embrace the idea that the EU should be more than just a market.

The challenge we face in our campaign is making the bridge. By that I mean, making relevant, and indeed interesting, European public service issues. The only way we can do this is by following examples such as your quality public service campaign. Why? Unfortunately, because the European Commission has long realised, not just since Charlie Mc Creevey joined its ranks, that its best tactic is to try to achieve market liberalisation “through the back door”, under the radar, incrementally and imperceptibly. It does this by exploiting the power of EU law and its natural weight towards internal market and competition rules. It is a kind of guerrilla warfare against public services. Instead of street-by-street, and house-by-house, this war is conducted case-by-case and directive-by-directive. Using the European Court of Justice rulings on individual cases, the Commission constructs an argument, and a precedent for its liberalisation agenda. The WATTS case is a good example. This is the soft incremental approach that the Commission implements when radical assaults like the Bolkestein directive meet stiff opposition.

Even if we take only the first half of this year, there have been hugely significant developments, which illustrate what is at stake. The European Parliament adopted the European Commission’s Communication on social services of general interest, and later this month, the Commission is set to publish its latest communication on public services. This document is entitled ‘A new European Commitment’. But we must ask to what are we committing?

This week there was also an extraordinary retrograde step in the European Parliament. A step which was engineered by right wing elements and which was so extreme that it was even condemned by the European Parliament leader of the Centre Right. The Internal Market Committee voted to reintroduce health services into the scope of the services directive. This radical step gives a clear illustration of what elements of the right wish to do to essential services. The Services, or Bolkestein directive was one of the most radical pieces of legislation in recent years, and threatened to destroy hard fought for working conditions and labour standards. However, happily the directive also saw the biggest mobilisation of trade unionists against the most radical elements of the text. This resulted in essential changes being proposed and accepted by a broad coalition in the European Parliament. A central plank of this was that health services would be excluded from the directive, which was accepted by the left and right in the EP.

This week the right reneged on this delicate compromise. While this does not mean an immediate introduction, it does mean that notice has been given that this is the desired direction. The European Parliament as a whole will vote on this on 24 May.

So the battle lines for all public services, and not just health, are drawn. It is a battle between high quality only for those who can afford it - the so-called choice agenda and genuinely universal provision of essential services for all.

Before we get to the contents of the Commissions upcoming proposal, I want to spend a little time, reminding you that the Commission’s attitude to public services is not a new one. For ten years now, it has been debating the definition of public services, or ‘services of general interest’, at EU level.

This debate has been largely driven by the publication of various consultation papers, or communications. These documents, such as the Green and White Papers on services of general interest, served only to outline possible options, and to propose further discussion.

However at the same time as this debate on the definition on public services was being conducted, the Commission was busy proposing and implementing sectoral initiatives, which had the effect of radically influencing some public services. In the gas, electricity, post and telecommunication, and transport sectors, far reaching directives were launched and implemented.

This two-headed approach meant that, over the last 10 years, while the Commission has been conducting a debate on public services, it has, ‘at the same time, been implementing a radical sectoral programme, which introduces the internal market into core public service areas.

One could legitimate ask whether the ‘debate’ to define public services was genuine, or whether it was simply a cynical exercise, designed to occupy peoples minds while the sectoral initiatives were implemented.

This view was given real weight two years ago when the Commission proposed the directive on services in the internal market, the so called Bolkestein directive, and last year, when the Green Paper on public-private partnerships was published. These initiatives lead us, EPSU, to believe that on public services, the Commission is pursing a stall and crawl approach on the positive definition of public services. For 10 years it has produced position papers and provoked discussion without ever proposing concrete action.

I fear that the latest Communication from the Commission will not provide much solace. It would seem that the Commission have not learned any lessons from the Bolkestein directive, and continue to push, without listening to other European actors. It is expected that the Commission will set out some principles for public services, and will call for a declaration from EU institutions. However no legal foundation for public services is given.

Faced with this Commission, which tackles the question of public services on a sectoral basis, and essentially with a view to liberalising, the trade union movement must focus its efforts by calling for a framework directive on public services.

The framework directive must be based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and must identify services that are beyond the reach of competition. It must allow the general interest to prevail over the market. It must give weight to the core values of universality, continuity, affordability, and democratic control. And it must safeguard the role of national, regional and local authorities to meet citizens’ needs.

This is the essence of our campaign and it is an idea, which is receiving increasing European support. However, European level support is only going to take us so far. As I have said, to really influence we need national debate.

Your role is essential, as it is only when these issues have resonance in national debates, can we start to influence the agenda.

EPSU is fully confident that, with our collective strength, we can persuade the EU to take our issues seriously. This event is a perfect example of how we need to link EU proposals to their national consequences. This is a battle that will go on and on, until we change the perception that public services need to be constantly curtailed and restricted. That is why your Quality public services campaign is so important. We need to shift the perception so that public services, and the workers who provide those essential services are recognised for the role the play, not just in society, but also in defining the meaningfulness of that society. Your campaign is a significant step in that direction. Now we need to repeat this success at European level. I thank you again for this invitation to speak and I congratulate you for the role that you are playing in promoting our shared agenda of quality public services - quality of life.