Public Administrations and Services of General Interest: What Kind of Europeanisation?

Under the direction of Michel Mangenot
Preliminary Remarks by Gérard Druesne, Director-General of EIPA
Foreword by Claude Wiseler, Luxembourg Minister for the Civil Service and Administrative Reform

Also available in French and German
The construction of Europe is having an increasing impact on the domestic policies of Member States. But what exactly is the situation with respect to public administrations and services of general interest (SGIs) in 2005? A comparative approach in terms of Europeanisation has been adopted in the discussion of these two areas whose boundaries fluctuate.
In the context of setting up a European administrative space, Community law affects basic principles, the process of opening up careers and working conditions for civil servants. Administrative co-operation between States outside the scope of Community competence has an impact in terms of social intercourse, the development of common methods and approaches and the invention of new instruments (e.g. the CAF).
There appears to be a very different approach to Europeanisation as regards services of general interest, which have had a legal basis since 1957. Although it initially crops up against a background of considerable divergence in national traditions, in this instance the Community process is moving in the direction of greater convergence. We can observe, in accordance with the rules on competition, a liberalisation of the various services of general economic interest (SGEI) without this movement being in any way directly linked to the processes of privatisation and regulation.
Employing a varied and innovative methodology, combining an analysis of national legislations and Community case law with a statistical study that compares six liberalised sectors (audiovisual, electricity, gas, post, railways and telecommunications), this book is the first to present an overall view of the enlarged European Union of Twenty-five.

The following have contributed to this book:
Lucie Cluzel, Christoph Demmke, Gilles Dumont, Michel Mangenot, Spas Sodev, Michael Stassart, Frédéric Varone and Christian de Visscher.
With advice from Pierre Bauby and Jean-Michel Eymeri.