Success for the European Citizens Initiative Right2Water – the countdown has started

(25 June 2013) European Commissioner Barnier announced late last week that he would propose to the Commission to exclude water services from the scope of the concessions directive.

He referred to the “concerns expressed by so many citizens”. It became headline news in several countries. Earlier the Commissioner had already declared that he recognises water as a public good.

This is a victory for the citizens, trade unions and so many other organisations who are supporting the European Citizens Initiative www.right2water.eu. Many thanks to all of you who are so engaged. We have set the date now for handing in the signatures on 9 September 2013.

The success is a recognition of the capacity of affiliates of EPSU to mobilize together and achieve remarkable results through joint work. Let me remind you that we worked together to defeat the Monti II strike regulation and now many unions are involved in the EPSU campaign on Tax Justice - Where has the 1000 billion EUR gone – we want our money back.

The campaign saw many different activities in several countries and a symbolic action of the Belgian unions and EPSU staff in Brussels on 19 June. I thank the participating unions and expect more unions to be engaged in further actions. EPSU was part of the trade union delegation that met Commissioner Semeta responsible for tax issues on 20 June. We raised a number of issues with him, including the Financial Transaction Tax, tax fraud and the imposed cuts in staff in administrations pointing out that austerity is a gift to companies and helps avoidance and fraud. And working together is what we need to defeat the austerity policies of the European Commission and to demand for an alternative course of action.

The closure of the Greek public broadcasting station ERT is a chilling reminder of how brutal these policies are. We have seen many unions out in action this last week in Belgium, Italy, Spain, the European civil servants, and colleagues on strike like the public transport workers organized in Kommunal. And we sent solidarity greetings to the unions in Portugal that are organizing a general strike 27 June. Our next action  will seek to bring the message No to Austerity: There are alternatives: Public Services, Tax Justice and Collective Bargaining to the Commission and Council President before the summit 24-25 October, an action in which we expect to engage a 1000 different workplaces in Europe.

I wish you all a good summer break and to recharge our batteries for an autumn which announces itself as being “chaud.”