Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-13-Speech-2-075"
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"en.20011113.6.2-075"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, with regard to the decisions taken in recent years by the Council and the European Parliament on the opening up to competition of hitherto protected sectors, in other words, monopolies, it has become clear that we must have solid legal bases in order to guarantee and develop services of general interest that are economically accessible to everyone and which therefore give substance to the status of citizens of the European Union. In our view, the current economic situation and the numerous job losses that have been announced in recent weeks, coupled with the fact that, even during a period of strong growth, we have had an average unemployment rate of 8% in recent years, highlight the absolute need to develop services of general interest.
This is why our group fully supports the voluntarist guidelines drawn up, in the main, by the European Confederation of Trade Unions and by the European Liaison Committee on services of general interest.
Article 16 of the Treaty of Amsterdam was a major step forward for Europe. It is now deemed to be insufficient, and that is why we are supporting the draft framework directive and the amendments tabled by the Group of the Party of European Socialists, the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left and the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. We expect the Laeken European Council, part of which will be dedicated to the European Union’s objectives, to clearly set forth this objective on services of general interest and the framework directive as well as a timetable.
What is at stake is of crucial importance. As in the case of procedures for public procurement contracts, which the Zappala report tackled, and as in the case of a particular sector such as public transport, which the Meijer report dealt with, we are required to adopt a framework for the policy on European competition, to develop a policy on regulated competition, to enable national, regional or local public authorities, in line with the principle of subsidiarity, to determine the missions of general interest services, the management contract that is to be fulfilled by the operators and the funding of these missions. This is the purpose of Amendment Nos 52 and 55 that we have tabled.
We also think that we must insist on carrying out a much more in-depth evaluation on the liberalisation of sectors, taking into consideration the interests of consumers and workers and the compatibility of market guidelines with the objectives of sustainable development – I am thinking of the water sector, for example – and not only from a technical point of view, but equally through dialogue with all the actors involved. This is the purpose of Amendment Nos 44 and 46.
The fact that it was necessary to present the various amendments to the House once again obviously indicates that what I have just said about objectives, and above all, about the resources to be implemented, has not received unanimous support.
Once again, in this field as in others, it is greater European integration that we need, whilst respecting the Community method and guaranteeing that public figures at all levels take the proper action to ensure the provision of general interest services."@en1
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