Strikes are in part a reaction to a European Commission that has forgotten that Public Services should be at the heart of the EU
PRESS COMMUNICATION, 27 November 2007
The Executive Committee of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) deplores the European Commission's position on the further consolidation of the legal framework regarding provision, organisation and financing of public services, including social services within the European Internal market (published on 20 November http://ec.europa.eu/services_general_interest/docs/com_2007_0725_en.pdf).
We urge the European Commission to seize the opportunities given to it by the Reform Treaty and propose a concrete draft directive on Public Service. A failure to do so by the European Commission would show a disrespect for the concerns of European citizens, local authorities, service providers and users, which were also expressed by half a million signatories and the mayors of 10 European capitals in a European trade union movement petition www.petitionpublicservice.eu.
Universal access to public services is a fundamental right and one of the distinguishing features of the European Social Model. Public services are equally essential to the economic development of towns, regions and Member States and underpin social, economic and territorial cohesion.
It is because the Commission has helped create, indeed, often actively encourage, a climate where public services are stripped to the bare minimum, that we are now seeing increasing industrial action across the sector and across the continent. The Commission's mantra that liberalization equals “choice”, and competition equals “efficiency”, despite mounting evidence, has put universal services under enormous pressure.
At the same time, public service workers have taken industrial action in France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Bulgaria, and Hungary, and over the coming weeks Portugal and Greece and Slovenia. This massive upturn in action by EPSU affiliates is a reaction to the suffocating atmosphere endorsed by the Commission.
We, the EPSU Executive Committee call on the European Commission to end this attack on public services - the services that most concern EU citizens - and call on President Barroso to come forward with a legislative text which will put the heart back into the EU.
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