Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-10-25-Speech-3-401"
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"en.20061025.29.3-401"2
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".
Mr President, Mrs Weiler, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been put in place in several areas of the public sector and these partnerships are gradually developing within the European Union. At a time when public budgets are limited, there can be no doubt as to their importance for the European economy. This is particularly true in the area of infrastructure, and especially in that of transport infrastructure, with which I am very familiar.
Firstly, in most of the Member States, the creation of public-private entities for the purposes of providing services of general economic interest is an altogether new and very innovative opportunity. Non-binding clarifications in this area would enable us to provide the necessary guidelines, without stifling innovation.
Secondly, in 2004, after several years of intense debates, Parliament, the 15 Member States at that time and the Commission reached a compromise and adopted the current directives on public contracts. Many Member States only implemented these directives this year, and some are working towards implementing them. In order to legislate on mixed public-private partnerships, we need to review the 2004 compromise, renegotiate a new text with 27 – and no longer 15 – Member States and, in the event that a new compromise is reached, once again force the Member States to amend their national laws and their practices in relation to public contracts, even though the current rules are not yet well established. That is why we think that it is better, at this stage, to choose a non-legislative path, just as most of the interested parties are requesting.
That is the point that I wanted to make on behalf of my colleague, Mr McCreevy, but you would be right in thinking that the Commissioner for Transport is also very much affected by these provisions. I am now going to listen carefully to the various speeches made by the MEPs.
In order to guarantee that these partnerships are totally effective and that public money is spent better, it is important to choose private partners on the basis of fair competition. Thus, the choice of private partner must be the result of a competitive and non-discriminatory procedure and must enable the partners to get all of the added value out of such a partnership in the long term. However, many interested parties believe that the regulatory framework that governs which private partners are selected to create these partnerships at Community level is incomplete or unclear.
Mrs Weiler’s report presents a balanced assessment of the main challenges that we must take up. You have provided some good answers to the problems presented, Mrs Weiler, and I should like to thank you for your work as rapporteur.
Allow me to mention what are, in our opinion, two crucial aspects, which I should like to cover before tomorrow’s vote. I shall begin by talking about concessions and then about mixed public-private companies, which are referred to as ‘institutionalised PPPs’.
Firstly, concessions: a concession gives a company the right to use facilities that have been built or services that have been provided in return for building infrastructure or providing a service. The construction and maintenance of roads and airports and waste management are two such examples. In November 2005 – a year ago – the Commission outlined in its communication the reasons why it thinks it useful to legislate on concessions, particularly on service concessions. The aim of this initiative is to guarantee equal treatment and legal certainty in relation to the granting of service concessions – as is the case for public contracts – while making a clear distinction between public contracts and concessions. In this regard, I am sure that Parliament will confirm the opinion of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. It remains very clear, however, that the choice of the legislative path should not deprive the public authorities of the room for manoeuvre that they need in order to choose the best private partner and, if necessary, to adjust the concession over time, in line with the objectives targeted by the partnership for the long-term future of the PPP.
Having said that, a step by step approach is called for. To begin with, the Commission will look more closely at the costs and benefits of a binding initiative on the granting of concessions and will examine other measures that will enable us to deal with the problems at stake.
On the basis of the results of this impact study, the Commission will then – most probably next year – decide whether the cost-benefit ratio warrants such a legislative initiative. If it does, then we will prepare a legislative proposal. That is what I wanted to say about concessions.
We now come to mixed capital companies, namely institutionalised PPPs. Public bodies are increasingly choosing private partners for public service companies set up in conjunction with the public sector. This is what we call institutionalised public-private partnerships. This type of partnership raises some specific questions: should the Community non-discrimination principles be applied to the choice of private partner, as the service provider's fellow shareholder, to the choice of service provider, or indeed to both these levels?
This question has given rise to some lively debates in Parliament. The main issue is actually whether we should create a new set of rules or whether we should simply make the existing legislation clearer so that we can deal with the problems that arise. The Commission has expressed a preference: for the time being, it does not want to draft new legislation on the matter, and this is for two reasons."@en1
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