Works and services concessions: another brick in the Internal Market's wall

After more than a year of discussions within the European Parliament, the EP Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee today adopted Philippe Juvin's Report on the "works and services concession contracts" Directive.

"Given the current patchwork of existing national legislation on that matter, it was high time for us to act at European level", said Philippe Juvin MEP after the vote.

"The aim of this text is threefold: setting up a clear, pragmatic and efficient framework at EU level, guaranteeing the right balance between transparency and flexibility for all actors, and making available additional tools for public authorities, to help them develop and modernise public services", the MEP added.

"The discussion on the Directive was unfortunately tainted by a number of misunderstandings and attempts to misinform", Philippe Juvin added. "No, the attribution of a concession is not synonymous with privatisation of public services."

The Directive is only establishing rules to apply if a public authority chooses to resort to a concession. It does not influence the public authority's choice. Local authorities are free to decide how to best manage the execution of works or the provision of services, either by outsourcing them to a third party or by taking care of them by themselves", he clarified.

"The Directive is not  synonymous with public services of lower quality either. Public authorities still have the control over the attribution criteria for the contract, as long as they are objective, non-discriminatory, related to the subject of the concession, and transparent. Public authorities can include conditions to ensure a high level of quality for public services", the MEP said.

The vote in plenary is foreseen for the second quarter of 2013.

(Translation from the original French)