Services: CESI rapporteur Hencks speaks at Intergroup “Public Services”

“By no means do deregulation and privatisation solve all problems,” CESI rapporteur for postal services Raymond Hencks declared on 20th September on the sidelines of a meeting of the European Parliament’s Intergroup “Public Services”. Hencks, a member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and of the steering committee of the Luxembourg civil servants’ union CGFP, pointed out that the international financial crisis has shown that services of general interest are still needed, not only guaranteed by but also delivered by public authorities. In a hearing before the cross-party “Public Services Intergroup” in the European Parliament, Hencks called for a better social impact assessment for the privatisation of public services. This impact assessment should involve the social partners and the advising EU organs, the EESC and the Committee of the Regions (CoR).

“It is a question of democracy that we are also mindful of the wishes of the people at European level,” Hencks emphasised in his address. There is a lack of public support in Europe for a continued policy of deregulation. The Luxembourger referred to the so-called Monti report on the single market. According to this, many EU citizens reject further market deregulation steps in public services. “The universal service principle must be safeguarded,” Hencks recalled. However, it would be barely possible to ensure this if private operators were to fillet the markets created through the deregulation. Many citizens were concerned about the quality of services of general interest (SGI) on account of this development. This concern is increasingly becoming fear and open rejection of European integration.

In his speech, Hencks criticised the evaluations conducted by the European Commission since 2001. The methods are inadequate: “I get the impression these evaluations serve only to justify the Community policy of market deregulation of network industries. There is a lack of clear analysis of the consequences of deregulation on the continuity, quality and accessibility of these services for the common good.” In the assessments of the Commission, the SGI have been considered solely on the basis of economic and not of social and ecological criteria. “In Europe, we need a qualified, independent impact assessment, which takes into account the will of the European citizens’’, Hencks demanded. To this end, he suggested the appointment of a committee to be formed of representatives from the Commission, the Parliament and the permanent representations from the EU member states, the CoR and the EESC.