- The refusal of the EU to establish a strong horizontal framework on all Services of General Interest as a balance to the liberalization of the market through the Services Directive and other sectoral initiatives. The unwillingness to affirm the overarching priority of a social Europe = guaranteeing the implementation of universal services obligations (accessible, affordable, quality services) and ensuring their priority over and above the interests of the market
- The limited exclusion of social services from the Services Directive, the separation of health services from social services, with its own legal process and and the development in 2008 of a proposal for a health directive on cross-border services.
- The lack of progress on developing a specific EU framework for social services.
- The reticence of the Commission to objectively assess the impact of liberalization and privatization on users and particularly on the poor. A good example of this is to look at what has really happened to energy prices, access, continuity and quality of supply with liberalization based on the real experiences of the poor.
- Above all, the lack of active stakeholder involvement in the debate and the design of policy proposals, the horizontal evaluation of Services of General Interest, or impact assessment procedures, particularly of the people most affected – people experiencing poverty.
EAPN
The European Anti-Poverty Network
