Members considered the compromise amendments reached on more than 990 amendments tabled.
Compromise proposals for the following areas were considered: simplification and flexibility of procedures; scope (definition of the concessions concept; exclusions); social requirements and procedural guarantees. The last Shadows meeting having taken place only the day before, compromises reached on some of the more controversial issues such as conditions for public-public cooperations, affiliated undertakings and governance were not considered in detail. The compromise on a potential increase of applicable thresholds is also still pending final verification of compatibility with EU international bilateral commitments.
Shadows generally expressed satisfaction with the results obtained, and thanked the Rapporteur for his open and professional management of this complex and controversial dossier. In particular, they welcomed the compromises aimed at simplifying the procedures and clarifying the scope of the directive (eg, stating the principle of administrative autonomy and freedom to define the provision of general services of economic interest, as well as exclusions). Reservations were raised with regards to the exemptions for public-public cooperations and affiliated undertakings. Overall however, most Groups recognised the importance of achieving a basic agreement on a common instrument, even if not all points of view could be reflected. Only the Greens stated their intention to vote against the report.
The vote in IMCO will take place on January 24th, on the same date as the vote on the directive on utilities.
Source : © European Union, 2013 - EP