Press release, 17 December 2003 The vote on 15 December on the report by MEP Philippe Herzog on the Commission’s Green Paper on Services of General Interest is a real blow to Social Europe. A tight majority of Conservatives and Liberals in the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee pushed through a business agenda that undermines the whole purpose of the current debate on services of general interest as an essential cornerstone of social inclusion and sustainable development in the EU.
"The vote on the Herzog Report boils down to a vote against a socially balanced market economy” says Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions - EPSU. "The proposed amendments have torn the initial text of the Herzog Report into pieces. We cannot build the enlarged European Union on internal market and competition rules." A direct outcome of the vote, if carried in plenary, will be growing disenchantment of citizens with the EU. "Under these circumstances it will get more and more difficult to convince our members to cast their vote in the next European elections. The party of the non-voters could be the winners." stated Ms Fischbach-Pyttel. She urges Christian Democrat MEPs to revisit the social origins of their political grouping. After all it was Ludwig Erhard, German Christian Democrat Minister for economic affairs in the 1950s-60s, who coined the notion of a ’social market economy’.
Recent electricity blackouts and disruptions of the railway systems in a number of EU countries demonstrate the need for public control. EPSU refutes the European Parliament’ statement that 1 million jobs have been created as a result of liberalisation. Likewise it is not true to say that liberalisation has benefited low-income earners. EPSU’s own analysis shows that some 300.000 jobs have been lost as a result of liberalisation, restructuring and market concentration in the electricity and gas sectors. In electricity, there is persistent evidence for over a decade that all domestic consumers have fared worse under liberalisation than they do without it. [1]
Ahead of the vote in plenary scheduled for 13 or 14 January, EPSU will make sure that amendments are retabled to the main body of the report, in line with the proposed Recitals. For EPSU it is essential to lay the ground for a framework directive to secure a decent future of public services; to exempt water, education, health and social services from competition rules; to leave local authorities free to decide on the running of public services; to put an end to the dogma that public service users are best served by private interest.
The European Federation of Public Service Unions is the largest federation affiliated to the ETUC and represents 8 million workers in health and social care, local, regional and central government, and utilities in energy, water and waste. www.epsu.org
Contact: Carola Fischbach-Pyttel T: +32 2 250 10 91, [email protected]
- Log in to post comments
