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Last week I was invited by the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Viviane Reding, to the Monitoring Group on TiSA, together with Penny Clark from the European Public Service Union.

It was a great opportunity to clarify Social Platform’s position on the inclusion of public services in TiSA and in trade agreements in general with MEPs and representatives of the European Commission.

Social Platform calls for the exclusion of public services from the scope of TiSA and other trade agreements, such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), regardless of how they are provided or funded. In particular, we focus on social, health, education and water services of general interest, on which our members have expertise – both as organisations representing users and providers of those services. The national members of our members provide services on a not-for-profit basis (they reinvest 100% of their profits in the activities of the organisation) or according to a social economy model (they reinvest most of their surpluses to achieve their mission).

We consider that the safeguards to protect public services that are in place in current trade treaties are not sufficient to fully protect them. The European Commission argues that public services are fully protected in trade agreements in three ways:

• Services that are considered to be “public utilities” at a national or local level are an exception to some trade rules.
• The EU reserves the right to adopt or maintain any measure with regard to the provision of all education, health and social services that receive public funding or state support in any form.
• Services can be excluded if a Member State opts to do so (view more here).

However, we believe that the so-called “public utilities” exception does not cover all modes of supply, therefore it doesn’t cover all situations. Due to the financial and economic crisis, in some Member States public services are funded by a mix of private and public sources, and sometimes only by private funds.

This is why we fully support the European Parliament’s resolutions on TTIP and TiSA calling on the Commission to ensure full exclusion of public services, including in future trade agreements.

We also fully support the TiSA resolution’s request to introduce a “gold standard” clause to exclude public services from the scope of trade agreements irrespective of how they are supplied.

During the debate an MEP asked me “how this golden clause would look in practice”. I replied that we are calling for the golden clause because the public-utilities clause does not cover all modes and forms of supply. Additionally, Member States while listing the services to be excluded from trade deals, could make mistakes and overlook some. Different interpretations could arise among the treaty parties.

Concretely, a golden clause could extend the application of the exception provided by the “public utilities” clause to all modes of supply – this is the suggestion put forward by the TiSA resolution. Alternatively, it might mean that in case of a legal controversy, a government’s right to regulate a specific public service prevails over commitments taken by the parties.

The representative from the European Commission confirmed the political willingness of EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and US Trade Representative Mike Froman to protect public services. He expressed doubts about the golden clause, as it will have to be negotiated with the other parties of TiSA outside the EU.

We will have chances to continue this debate with MEPs and the Commission, and we will continue to fight for the golden clause!