EPSU - CEMR - EUROCITIES in European Parliament

On 3 December EPSU organised with CEMR and EUROCITIES* a joint meeting at the European Parliament to further discussion with MEPs on the Parliament’s report on Services of General Interest (drafted by Phlippe Herzog MEP).

The meeting provided another opportunity to debate with MEPS from different parties the issues surrounding SGIs before the Parliament votes on December 16 on its report is voted in Plenary.

EPSU is lobbying to get support for Philippe Herzog’s report (see Resolution adopted at EPSU Executive 25/26 November "Public services: a core feature of the European Social Model")

At the round table, all three organisations stressed that access for all to high quality services is a fundamental dimension of the European social and economic model and public authorities at local and regional level provide a significant share of public services in Europe. They all expressed concern that the power of local and regional authorities to make decisions regarding SGI is being eroded because EU competition rules are taking precedence over subsidiarity principles and public service concerns.

The three associations have previously issued a joint statementon the Green Paper and expressed an interest to further cooperation in this area.

*The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) is a European federation gathering 46 national associations from 33 countries representing some 100 000 local and regional governments.

*EUROCITIES is the European network representing the public authorities of more than 100 major cities and more than 100 million inhabitants in the current and future EU Member States. Services of general interest are directly relevant to citizens in cities, and the local governments of cities provide a significant share of public services in Europe.