Following the round of negotiations on the ‘plurilateral’” Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), which took place in Geneva in the week before last, this week saw an expert hearing in the European Parliament as well as a Civil Society Dialogue on TiSA. Whilst the Commission is still convinced that we are in urgent need of such an agreement, employee representatives and NGOs reiterated the dangers of the progressive liberalisation of services.

In the hearing on TiSA, which took place in the Trade Committee, Viviane Reding (EPP), former EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship and now rapporteur for TiSA, emphasised the significance of TiSA for the European economy and argued the case for holding an open and constructive dialogue. This was important to clarify right from the outset, which demands and plans would be unacceptable.

TiSA shall not suffer the same fate as TTIP

Reding warned in particular against a “TTIPisation” of the Agreement. In this connection, she stressed the role of the European Parliament, which had set up a monitoring group on TiSA. Due to the uncertainty of many Parliamentarians, she agreed with the Committee chairman Bernd Lange (S&D) to draw up a report, which should shed a light on the interaction of the agreements currently under negotiation (TiSA, TTIP, CETA, etc.).

Exclude public services from TiSA

The representatives of science and civil society agreed that public services should not form part of the Agreement. European Services Forum (ESF) ESF Managing Director Pascal Kerneis commented that the ESF would not have any problem to exempt services of public interest from TiSA. Professor Markus Krajewski (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg) regarded the wording of this exclusion as acceptable as it included all types of services, which would receive public subsidies. Penny Clarke, Deputy General Secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) added that the definition of public services had to be expanded towards public interest. Other urgent warnings included the consequences of the liberalisation of services, for example the Postal sector

 

Whilst TiSA critics demand a positive list approach (only the stated services are liberalised), representatives of the economic side made it clear that they want a purely negative list approach (all services are liberalised except for those that are explicitly exempted) and that they are not happy with a mixed approach.

In the Civil Society Dialogue, the representative of the European Commission, Ignacio Iruarrizaga Díez, once again pointed out how important this Agreement was for the EU. Unfortunately, the negotiations had not progressed as well as one had hoped. Everything was currently still a bit “obscure”; however, the Commission expected the most important elements to emerge by the summer so that negotiating the compromises could begin in 2016. He regarded the original target to have the negotiations finished by the end of 2015 as being unrealistic. For example, the so-called Rachet Clause, which ensures that once liberalisations have taken place they cannot be reverse, would guarantee more discussions. Iruarrizaga Díez commented on this that the option to exempt certain sectors from the Rachet Clause would exist in any case and thus this would not be a problem.

From the point of view of the Chamber of Labour, a fundamental change of policy in respect of the EU trade policy was urgently required. Apart from a mandatory integration of social standards and ensuring the compliance with employees' rights, an exemption of services of general interest from the application report of the Free Trade Agreement must be beyond dispute. Negotiation on the liberalisation of public services must be stopped.

Further information on this subject:

Published texts of the European Commission on TiSA

AK EUROPA Position on the plurilateral Trade in Services Agreement

PSI Special Report: The Really Good Friends of Transnational Corporations Agreement

Public Services International (PSI) Study

Documentation of ETUC-EPSU-AK Europa-ÖGB Europabüro Seminars on FTAs and public services

AK Info letter “GATS reloaded, page 25ff (German only)