Services of general interest in Europe

The European Parliament adopted a resolution drafted by Werner LANGEN (EPP/ED, D) on the Commission Communication on services of general interest. (Please refer to previous text). Moreover, it called on the Commission to perform a precise and comparative evaluation of the real impact of the policy of liberalisation of such services before embarking on further liberalisation. The Commission is expected to define in the framework directive the common principles on which services of general interest are based at an appropriate tier of subsidiarity. General interest services should be taken to mean services that are important for people's daily lives, therefore including transport, postal services, telecommunications, education, hospitals, social services, drains, refuse collections and water and energy supply, particularly electricity. Parliament goes on to make certain recommendations with regard to particular sectoral cases. A specific approach should be taken to audiovisual services - irrespective of the type of audiovisual broadcast, whether public service television, private television, video streaming, etc., -and culture in order to achieve objectives such as the protection of fundamental rights and democratic principles, pluralism, access for all to culture and technological progress, the right of reply, cultural and linguistic diversity and the protection of users.�