Commission decides to exclude water from concessions directive
Last week Commissioner Barnier announced that water supply is excluded from the scope of the concessions directive.
This is due to the fact that some member states (Germany, mostly, but also Austria and Slovenia) are concerned about the implications of the directive on water supply.
The European Citizens’ Initiative “Water is a human right!”, that Social Platform supports, has reached 1,5 million signatures. It calls on EU institutions to guarantee water and sanitation for all in the EU and not to liberalise water supply.
Therefore Commissioner Barnier said: “It is my judgement that the text we now have relating to water is not satisfactory for anyone: it does not provide reassurances that citizens expect and it creates fragmentation in the single market”. He also recalled that “at no point has the Commission proposed to force or even encourage privatisation of public services, such as water. The decision on how to run a public service is in member states’ hands, and their local authorities. And it will remain that way”. Barnier further noted that “it is our duty to take into account the concerns expressed by so many citizens”. Accordingly, the Commissioner concluded that “the best solution now appears to be to remove water from the scope of the concessions directive […] I will propose to President Barroso and my fellow commissioners to endorse this decision” (source: Europolitics).
