19/03/2013 Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs
Strasbourg, 18.03.2013 – “Though public administrations have to accept the changing social and economic environment, public services cannot be built on the contingencies of the moment. The State remains a guarantor of social, economic and territorial cohesion” concluded the participants at a hearing entitled “Europe’s public administrations in flux: public service under threat?”, held in Paris today by the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs.
Several contributors stressed that while it was difficult to gauge the correlation between reforms and the privatisation of services and their impact on quality and changes in prices, a case-by-case approach seemed preferable to a dogmatic approach. As to austerity measures, particularly spending cuts brought about by methods including wage cuts and privatisation, the Committee members pointed out that they did not always yield the expected results.
“Our goal should be to keep public services in Council of Europe member states in line with reasonable demands from citizens and ensure that they protect and respect human rights. This should apply to a whole range of services considered to be inherent to citizens’ daily life. At the same time we would like public administration to be a model employer, offering equal opportunities”, concluded Tiny Kox (Netherlands), who has been asked to present a report to PACE on this subject before the end of the year.