Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-10-06-Speech-3-143"
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"en.20101006.13.3-143"2
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"Mr President, the horizontal social clause laid down in Article 9 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union states: ‘In defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall take into account’, inter alia, ‘requirements linked to the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection’ and ‘the fight against social exclusion’. The Commission is committed to implementing this clause, including through strengthening the assessment of social impact, as part of its overall impact assessment system.
As I have explained, there are numerous fora for discussion and dialogue with the SSGI stakeholders. The Commission, therefore, does not see the need to establish an extra taskforce. However, the Commission is committed to tackling the difficulties faced by some providers of SSGI with the interpretation of the single market rules, including under the forthcoming Single Market Act, to be adopted by the Commission before the end of October.
In relation to the specific situation of social services of general interest (SSGI), the Commission believes that it is important to ensure legal certainty for public authorities in the Member States. However, the Commission does not consider it necessary, at this stage, to set up a multi-stakeholder taskforce to tackle the difficulties some providers of SSGI are experiencing with the interpretation of the single market rules.
The Commission is aware that a significant number of public authorities and stakeholders consider the EU rules applicable to social services as an obstacle to the organisation and financing of such services. However, consultations of public authorities and stakeholders show that the existing rules, to a large extent, take account of the specificities of social services of general interest. The problems reported are very often due to a lack of awareness of, and information about, the rules, or to doubts about the way such rules are to be implemented.
For this reason, the Commission has put a strategy in place, including the interactive information service, the frequently asked questions documents and the training initiative for local public authorities. The Commission is in the process of updating the frequently asked questions documents. Once finalised, the Commission will present them to the Member States and the stakeholders within the Social Protection Committee.
Another discussion forum with the Member States is the Advisory Committee on Public Procurement. A public consultation on the SGEI package – Services of General Economic Interest – which aims to clarify and simplify the application of State aid rules to those services, has just ended. The Commission will share its assessment of the contributions received with Parliament, the Committee of the Regions, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Member States. As the Commission has stated on numerous occasions, the specificities of social services will be duly taken into account in the revision of the package.
In addition, the Commission has had a fruitful dialogue with the main stakeholders over the last few years on possible adaptations to the existing EU rules – in particular, within the Social Protection Committee and Parliament’s intergroup on public services. In July, the Commission participated in a seminar organised by the Belgian Presidency with the Member States and various stakeholders. Once again, these discussions have shown that, while there is a strong and legitimate interest in fine-tuning, there was no real need to change the fundamental structure of existing EU rules in order to adapt them to the specificities of SSGI. This being so, the Commission is aware that the Belgian Presidency has put forward some suggestions with a view to clarifying and adjusting the existing rules. The Commission is carefully considering these suggestions.
I also recall that the Third Forum on Social Services of General Interest, to be organised on 26 and 27 October under the auspices of the Belgian Presidency, will provide an opportunity to discuss these suggestions and possibly others as well.
Lastly, the Commission is working within the Social Protection Committee on a voluntary quality framework for social services. The Commission has worked very closely with the main stakeholders, social partners, local authorities, service providers and users in drawing up such a framework.
In summary, the Commission is committed to implementing the new horizontal social clause, including the relation to SSGI."@en1
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