How to define and measure an affordable character of SGEI?

Transcription

1 EESC 25 October 2013 How to define and measure an affordable character of SGEI? Pierre Bauby (RAP)

2 Protocol 26 on SGI The common values of the European Union In the European language, services of general interest (SGI) covers both - economic (SGEI) and non economic (NESGI) services which public authorities class as being of general interest and subject to specific public service obligations The Protocol n 26 on SGI of the Lisbon Treaty mention the common values of the Union in respect of SGEI: the essential role and the wide discretion of national, regional and local authorities in providing, commissioning and organising SGEI the diversity between various SGEI and the differences ( ) that may result from different geographical, social or cultural situations 6 values for all SGEI in the European Union: a high level of quality, safety and affordability, equal treatment and the promotion of universal access and of user rights

3 A high level of quality Promotion of user rights A high level of safety SGEI Promotion of universal access A high level of affordability Equal treatment

4 A high level of affordability The very meaning of services of general interest is, at each level (local, regional, national, European) to guarantee the right of each inhabitant to access fundamental goods or services to meet its needs, build solidarity, vouchsafe the economic, social and territorial cohesion of each community, promoting sustainability «Affordability» concerns all possibilities of access to services: territorial, financial, procedural, architectural, of transport, etc. Two approaches on «affordability» exist : one revealing a universal dimension other limited to low revenues, vulnerable or disadvantaged populations

5 A high level of affordability Affordability is not an absolute value but it depends on the economic and social conditions in each territory, on the needs and their evolution. 20 years after the adoption of the objective of the internal market, despite all the initiatives of the cohesion policy, deep disparity continues to exist. It reveals the issues regarding the financing of public service obligations the price of access to SGEI depend not only on the production costs or the price of the market, or user revenues «affordability» refers to the five other common values: a high level of quality and safety, equal treatment and the promotion of universal access and of user rights

6 How to measure affordability? Therefore, affordability cannot be measure only in a monetary and financial way but: on the one hand, by linking it to the economic, social and territorial conditions of each Member State and to the particularities of each sector (for instance, the part of households budget for a basket of basic services) on the other hand, by developing indicators which represent territorial, procedural, architectural, transport accessibility conditions finally, by crossing these data, to develop participatory practices of all users and stakeholders to adapt services of general interest to the evolution of needs, to technological developments and economic situations

7 How operational are these values? At EU level, the Protocol 26 could at the same time Be implemented through regulations provided for in art. 14 TFEU Be developed in the EU cross-cutting and sectoral legislation Be inserted, as part of EU primary law, by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the references on which it relies its jurisprudence Be used as legal means by claimants if they prove that the principles they gave are sufficiently clear, precisely and unconditional stated, that they set down an obligation to do or not to do something. This use of Protocol 26 as a legal means seems equally possible in each of the Member States, as long as it is a full component of the European Union s primary legislation, which is applicable everywhere Be implemented in each Member State