EPSU

Please help us identify new cases !

Veronique — 2010-04-01T09:52:49Z

Write to us at vvandenabeele@epsu.org using the e-mail title: ‘Turning the Tide Example' and we will add them to the list.

Find here the EPSU General Circular n°2 in English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish and Russian.


General Circular TTT - EN


General Circular TTT- FR


General Circular TTT- DE


General Circular TTT - ES


General Circular TTT- SV


General Circular TTT- RU

Water Remunicipalisation Tracker

Veronique — 2010-02-02T09:41:07Z

Visit this site if you want to know more about the Water Remunicipalisation Tracker - Media Stories

Europe: Privatised Services Back in Public Hands By Julio Godoy

catherine — 2010-02-01T10:32:25Z

BERLIN, Jan 28, 2010 (IPS) - After the wave of de-privatisation of water services facilities that started across the world two years ago, municipalities in Europe are now buying back the electricity utilities they sold to private investors in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In Germany, numerous city and regional governments have already ended the privatisation of the electricity facilities, or are in negotiations with the private owners.

Around the Bavarian capital of Munich, some 500 km southeast of Berlin, "the local governments are now convinced that municipal utilities are public goods that belong to state hands," Christoph Goebel, mayor of Graefelfing town, told IPS.

In Ottobrunn, another town on the periphery of Munich, the local government has just grounded a city-owned electricity provider. It says "the selling of the municipal utilities to private companies, which only obey the shareowners' interest, has proven to be a mistake."

In the federal state of Bavaria alone, some 2,000 licences for municipal utilities given to private companies 20 years ago are due to end this year. Most cities are unwilling to extend these licences, according to mayors and law counsellors. Instead, city governments are planning to take back the management of electricity and water facilities.

Matthias Albrecht, a Munich-based lawyer specialising in lease of public utilities, told the local ?Sueddeutsche Zeitung? newspaper that "the buyout of grids and other electricity facilities is practically free of economic risks" for city and regional governments. "I have observed that city and regional governments are good managers."

In Berlin, the city government is seeking a change in the terms of concession on water facilities to French company Veolia. The contract with Veolia ends only in 2028, and the city government cannot adjust it at will, but it would like "to modify the distribution of profits," Ulrich Nussbaum, Berlin commissioner for finances, told IPS.

"There are several points in the concession that need to be modified urgently," Nussbaum added.

Michael Cunnac, head of the Berlin-branch of Veolia, agreed to negotiations. "The city government and us will discuss the contract in a constructive way," he said. But Cunnac made clear that Veolia is not willing to terminate the contract. "An end of the concession is out of question."

Similar trends in the re-municipalisation of public utilities privatised during the last 20 years are emerging in many cities all over Germany, and in other European countries.

The city governments are only belatedly following the advice of economists and local activists. In a study released in 2006, Heinz Josef Bontrup, professor of urban economy at the University of Gelsenkirchen, concluded that "the privatisation of municipal utilities is not beneficial, both in financial terms and in the quality of services to the people they provide."

In Paris, the municipal administration will this year regain control of all water services for the city, ending a private monopoly that has lasted more than 100 years.

When city mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced the end of the private monopoly of water services in June 2008, he promised "to offer a better service, at a better price. We also promise that prices would be stable."

Both considerations are now the basis for local governments' claims in support of re-municipalisation of public utilities, Olivier Hoedemann, member of the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), told IPS.

CEO is a watchdog group monitoring large European private companies. It set up a Water Re-municipalisation Tracker in 2008 to document the decline of the privatisation of water facilities around the world.

"The privatisation of water facilities has proven all over the world to be a major mistake, both in terms of prices and of the quality of services provided to the citizens," Hoedemann said in an interview.

Hoedemann said that German re-municipalisation of public utilities is in line with a global trend. "Even the European Commission (EC), which for many years supported the privatisation of public goods in developing countries, has changed its position, and now supports the public management of municipal facilities."

He pointed to the new EC water facility, a European programme to support development of state-managed water utilities in the group of 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.

The water facility, to be officially presented next month, will allocate 200 million euros (290 million dollars) up to 2013 for the development of the water sector in the ACP countries.

The EC water facility also focuses more on sustainable improvement in the capacity of local governments and local civil society organisations for better water services for the poorest, in cooperation with European partners.

"In this sense, the facility constitutes a real change compared to the first phase of the former EC water facility (2004 to present), where the emphasis was put on supporting public-private partnerships and grants for projects of large EU-based non-governmental organisations, both of which have yielded unsatisfactory results," Hoedemann told IPS.

Most remarkably, he said, the EC has for the first time allocated a separate budget of 40 million euros (56.2 million US dollars) to support cooperation between public water companies in Europe and the ACP countries.

"The Commission now seems to have realised that improving the existing public water supply in developing countries is the most effective way to promote access to clean water and that this can be done through not-for-profit cooperation with efficiently operating public drinking water companies, whether from Europe or from the ACP countries themselves," Hoedemann said.

Hoedemann said there is increasing interest in such public-public partnerships across the world as a result of the failure of water privatisation, and also as a solution to the water crisis in developing countries.

"When the Water Re-municipalisation Tracker counted earlier 2009, we found over 130 such partnerships, in over 70 countries," Hoedemann said. "Also, the United Nations has started supporting this approach, through the Global Water Operator Partnerships Alliance, hosted by U.N.-Habitat."

Read the original article on IPS website

Download here the brochure in your language

catherine — 2010-01-25T14:56:38Z


EPSU leaflet - EN


EPSU leaflet - FR


EPSU leaflet - DE


EPSU leaflet - ES


EPSU leaflet - SV


EPSU leaflet - RU

Where have ordinary people been 'turning the tide' for public services?

2009-06-04T17:11:27Z

Home

Turning the Tide: public sector and public services in Europe Case studies: cities and countries

Ø Belgium: city services in Liege

Ø Bulgaria, better hospitals

Ø Estonia, employment service

Ø Estonia, railways

Ø Finland, public electricity

Ø Finland, municipal cleaning company: Palmia

Ø France, water remunicipalised in Paris

Ø Germany, vote for services in Leipzig

Ø Hungary, vote for public healthcare

Ø Spain, social services in Hospitalet

Renationalising the railways

richard — 2009-06-03T16:55:41Z

In 2006 the Estonian state decided to renationalise the railway system. It had been partly sold to an American company in 2001, but the company failed to deliver the investment and performance improvements which were required under its original contracts. In addition, the privatisation meant that the railway system was not eligible for EU infrastructure funds, and this public finance was more crucial for investment in Estonia's railways than the private company's performance.

As a result, in 2006 the government decided to renationalise the company in full, with effect from 2007. The crisis has demonstarted a further advantage of public ownership, because the rail company has been able to raise 40 million Euros from a bond repayable in 15 years at an interest rate of only 0.32% above the lowest available in Europe – private companies cannot get such long-term loans, or such low interest rates.

Improving health services in Gabrovo

richard — 2009-06-03T16:51:53Z

In 2000 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank insisted on changes to the Bulgarian healthcare system, without any real public debate. Polyclinics were replaced with a GP (general practitioner) service and finance was changed from general taxation to a 6% insurance contribution.

Multiprofil Hospital, Gabrovo, Bulgaria - Images by Philip Wolmuth

The system suffers from underfunding and emigration of staff to other countries due to poor pay. The Multiprofil hospital in Gabrovo, a town at the centre of Bulgaria, is an example of how public healthcare has not only survived but consciously improved services to patients in Bulgaria, based on active involvement of staff, dialogue with patients, and positive relations with unions. Salaries and staffing levels have been increased, and the hospital continues to treat patients whether they have insurance or not.

Campaign defends publicly financed healthcare

richard — 2009-06-03T16:43:04Z

In 2006 the Hungarian government proposed health service reforms which included hospital closures, the introduction of fees, and the privatisation of health finance by the creation of regional, part private, insurance funds.

Parliament first passed a law to introduce fees for patients, which had to be paid every time they saw a doctor or stayed in a hospital - the same law introduced fees for other public services, including university education. Oposition parties organised a campaign against these fees, and initiated a process to force a public referendum. They secured enough signatures to force a referendum in 2008 which resulted in a large majority against the law. The fees had to be abandoned after operating for a few months.

Opposition to the privatisation of funding was led by a campaign group formed by a number of organisations, led by Vedegylet (‘Protect the Future'), the health trade union EDDSZ, other trade unions, and the doctors' association. The campaign used a wide range of tactics, including mass demonstrations, events to gain media attention, published critiques of the proposals, and televised debates.

The campaign gathered over 400,000 signatures – twice as many as was needed to force another referendum – against the law proposing the creation of regional insurance funds run by private companies. Rather than risk another defeat, the government agreed to abandon these plans. By late 2008, all the proposals had been dropped.

Remunicipalisation of water services

richard — 2009-06-03T16:33:32Z

Unlike most countries in the world, water services in France are mostly run by private companies, and dominated by the large multinationals Suez and Veolia. In 1984 a right-wing council controlled the city of Paris, and awarded 25-year contracts to both companies for water distribution in the city, each covering one half of the area.

The two companies not only held the contracts for water distribution, they also owned 14% of SAGEP, the part-municipal company which was supposed to regulate the companies' contracts, as well as managing the bulk water supply. The terms of the contracts were very favourable to the companies, reflecting their close relations with the politicians who awarded them.

In 2001, the Socialist Party and the Greens won control of Paris city council. The first steps taken by the new council were to renegotiate the terms of the contracts, to remove some of the worst provisions, and then to transfer the companies' shares in SAGEP to a state investment agency. SAGEP was also renamed Eau de Paris.

Because the contracts expire at the end of 2009, the council has the opportunity to take over the service at that date without having to terminate the contracts. Studies commissioned by the council showed that there would be savings of about €30million per year from the remunicipalisation, as a result of eliminating excess profit and of reducing the transaction costs between three different bodies. The group then won the next election, in 2008, on a manifesto which included the promise to remunicipalise the entire water service.

The remunicipalisation will involve responsibility for all water services being taken over by Eau de Paris, which is being reconstituted as a public company, 100% controlled by the municipality. From 1st January 2010, the water in Paris will be fully public for the first time in over 150 years.

Estonia: Employment service expands

richard — 2009-06-03T15:56:36Z

Estonia has enjoyed relatively low unemployment in recent years, partly because it has been easy for Estonians to find work in Finland, which is nearby and has a similar language. This is now rapidly changing due to the economic crisis, and the rise in the number of unemployed is leading to economic stress for families and public finances. Employee and employer contributions to the unemployment insurance fund are being more than tripled, from 0.6% to 3% for employees.

The growth has also put extra pressure on employment offices. By early 2009 people had to wait for over a month before they were given any support for finding a job. One response is that the number of employment offices in Tallinn will be doubled. The employment service is also being transformed into an autonomous agency: existing staff will be transferred out of the civil service to the new agency, but with large increases in salary. Through extra premises and extra pay it is expected that the service will be able to cope with the higher demand.