Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-13-Speech-2-141"
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"en.20011113.7.2-141"2
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".
Services of general interest, the purpose of which should be to provide the best possible services to the entire public, are being handed over to private, profit-making companies which trade in social commodities purely on a maximum profit basis within the so-called free market economy. This is the objective of the ΕU, to step up the liberalisation which it started in the transport, electricity, natural gas, postal and water sectors.
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The only justification for this anti-grass roots approach is the contention that it will improve the competitiveness of the economy. It completely overlooks the quality of these services and the fact that, once they have been liberalised, one section of the population will be denied access to these services because it will be unable to afford the prices charged by the companies which agree to manage them.
The basic aim of liberalisation is to hand these services over to the private sector for speculative purposes. This will have adverse repercussions on the workers, in the form of the increased prices for the services provided and, more importantly, the waves of redundancies and flexible types of employment which always replace traditional forms of employment in the wake of privatisation.
Our experience of market liberalisation and privatisation in Europe and other countries has shown us that the quality of services falls, prices rise and jobs are cut back drastically, as the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs admits in its opinion.
In Greece, for example, the price per unit for local and long distance calls has risen over tenfold and profits have risen a hundredfold since Greek Telecom and mobile telephony were privatised. And instead of the flourishing of the arts anticipated from the privatisation of radio and television, broadcasting companies are dumbing down and distorting culture, disorientating and misleading the public.
Public utilities are not only economically important to each country; they are also strategically important from the point of view of the security and independence of each country, especially in times of economic or other crisis.
We oppose all forms of privatisation and contend that privatised companies should be returned to the public sector and improved and modernised so that they can provide cheap, high quality services, serve the working classes and act as a driving force behind the grass-roots economy.
That is why we shall be voting against the report.
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