Just because the Treaty and the Services Directive don’t make privatisation mandatory, and just because they except the water sector from a number of general internal market rules, doesn’t mean that privatisation cannot be mandated in some other context. There is no provision of EU law that forbids the privatisation of water companies. (And fortunately so, given that a number of EU countries have private water companies.)
Publicat el 11 d'octubre de 2012
On privatization of water by the Troika
MEPs Raül Romeva i Rueda, Rui Tavares, Nikos Chrysogelos and Ruële Heide, of the Greens/EFA, have delivered a Written Question to the European Commission, on Privatization of Water by the Troika
The15th May, a group of NGOs sent a letter to Mr.Olli Rehn regarding the recommendations made by the Troika to privatize public services, including water.
The Commission answer with 4 month delay, saying that ” the Commission believes that the privatisation of public utilities, including water supply firms, can deliver benefits to the society when carefully made. To this end, privatisation should take place once the appropriate regulatory framework has been prepared to avoid abuses by private monopolies. (…)” This declarations reaffirms the goal of privatization and appears to be in violation of the EU’s supposed neutrality on the question of public or private ownership and management of collective water services (article 345 TFEU and Art. 17 1 of the Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market).
In accordance with the resolutions of the European Parliament of 14.01.2004, 10.03.2004 and of 31.05.2006, the water sector should not be liberalised but modernised. The water sector should therefore not fall under the scope of the directive on service concessions. The resolution voted (03-07-2012) by the European Parliament states that access to water should be a fundamental and universal right. The ECI, Right to Water (http://www.right2water.eu/), requests the EU to increases its efforts to achieve universal access to water and sanitation.
How the Commission explains the contradiction between the Troika’s recommendations, the mentioned articles of the treaties, the spirit of the charter of fundamental rights of the EU and the initiatives of the European Parliament? Are these recommendations a violation of art. 345 TFEU and the principle of subsidiarity of the EU? Will the Commission withdraw these recommendations in all the bail-out countries?
Font foto: Baldinger
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