Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-14-Speech-1-293-000"
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"en.20111114.23.1-293-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, public services are a fundamental pillar of our European social model and not only play a key role for the individual citizen, but are also of enormous importance for the wellbeing of society at large. For this reason, the following question should be uppermost in our minds when we come to reform the EU State aid rules on services of general economic interest. What conditions are needed to ensure the highest possible service quality and, on the other hand, to guarantee universal access for all levels within the population?
The key to the provision and organisation of such high-quality public services is certainty among service providers and public authorities in relation to the general legal conditions, on the one hand, and greater proportionality in the regulations, on the other, so that more attention is paid to the diversity of the various kinds of public service and so that administrative effort is reduced. Thus, the EU State aid rules can only be reformed if the special function of public services is taken into account and if the subsidiarity principle is strictly observed.
In addition, a legal framework for public services should be established for a sufficient degree of legal certainty. For us in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, the legal basis for this would be Article 14 of the Treaty of Lisbon. However, as we know, opinion in the European Parliament has been divided on this issue for many years. Nonetheless, we believe that this report has succeeded in its objective of finding a compromise that could be accepted by almost all sides.
The administrative effort involved in managing compensatory payments to those providing public services is currently too high. This is particularly true for small authorities and service providers. The increase we have called for in the thresholds for exemption from mandatory notification of the European Commission when claiming compensatory payments would provide initial relief. The State aid rules must be designed so that the administrative effort expended by the local authorities and service providers is proportionate to the potential impact on the internal European market and on competition. The special
arrangements we propose provide an important basis for this, involving a general exception to the regulations for purely local services and social services.
To ensure that we cater more precisely to the special role of social services, we would call for a clear definition and protection of their function and character. In addition, our report also clearly rejects the proposal from the European Commission that efficiency criteria should be introduced for services of general interest as a prerequisite for establishing their compatibility with EU competition rules. The European Commission is going beyond its remit here, as it is simply responsible for controlling State aid. On the other hand, the definition of economic conditions is solely a matter for the Member States and can only be regulated on a European level with the cooperation of the European Parliament.
In this context, I would like to close by thanking my colleagues, the shadow rapporteurs, for excellent cross-party cooperation in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. The clear vote in favour of my report at committee level is evidence of this results-based, solutions-oriented cooperation. I am therefore confident that in tomorrow’s plenary vote, we shall also succeed in sending out a clear signal from the European Parliament to the European Commission demanding sustainable, future-proofed general conditions in the area of public services."@en1
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