14 Amendments of Sophie AUCONIE related to 2011/2146(INI)
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas SGEI are services that cannot always be provided, or cannot be provided adequately, without state intervention,
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas Protocol No 26 TFEU establishes that SGEI should be characterised by a high level of quality, safety and affordability, equal treatment and the promotion of universal access and of user rights, and explicitly recognises the right of regional and local authorities to managessential role and extensive discretionary powers of national, regional and local authorities to provide them, have them carried out and organise them,
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Stresses that reform of the EU rules on state aid for SGEI is only part of an urgently required horizontal legislative framework for SGEI, and that such a framework offers the only means of affording the requisite legal certainty and clarity in relation to EU law on SGEI; emphasises that a new legal basis for such a horizontal legislative framework has been created with Article 14 TFEU; points out that the Commission undertook, in the Single Market Act, to bring forward by the end of 2011, in addition to its communication, a series of measures on SGEI; calls on the Commission, therefore, to submit a proposal for the horizontal legislative frameworkthe necessary clarification of the legal provisions which apply to SGEI; emphasises that a new legal basis has been created with Article 14 TFEU which will make it possible to achieve more satisfactory legal certainty; calls on the Commission to bring forward by the end of 2011 a series of measures on SGEI, as it undertook to do in the Single Market Act;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Asserts emphatically that public services must be of a high quality and accessible to all sections of the population; views with concern, in this regard, the restrictive stance taken by certain Member Statesthe Commission, which, in relation to state aid for social housing associations, classifyies the services provided by such associations as social services of general interest (SSGI) only if they are reserved for socially disadvantaged persons or groups, this restrictive interpretation being at odds with the higher goal of fostering an appropriate social mix;
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission to include investment costs for infrastructure necessary to the functioning of SGEI within the costs that compensatory payments may cover and to devote attention to the fact that the provision of SGEI is sometimes based on long-term public investment aid rather than on annual operating subsidies;
Amendment 55 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the Commission’s concern to ensure, through a more diverse approach to the application of state aid rules, that the administrative burden placed on the public authorities is proportionate to the potential impact of the measure concerned on competition in the internal market; calls therefore, with reference to Article 106(2) TFEU, for the provisions to be framed in such a way as to ensure, on the one hand, that they are applied correctly and, on the other, that the undermake it easier to understand and predict the right to State aid to SGEI and attakings entrusted with the operation of services of general interest can perform in full the specific tasks assigned to them greater legal certainty for public authorities and operators;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8a. Calls on the Commission to clarify the concept of 'public procurement procedure', which should include all procedures that involve organising publicity and competition with respect being ensured for the principles of transparency and equal treatment; the concept of 'least cost', which should be interpreted as making it possible to take into account not just price but various criteria linked to the subject of the contract, such as qualitative, environmental or social criteria; the concepts of 'economic activity' and 'non- economic activity', 'impact on trade between Member States' and 'reasonable profit';
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Commission, as part of the promised simplification of state aid rules, to introduce greater flexibility in the monitoring of over-compensation, on the basis, in particular, of measures to prevent over-compensation, as this would result in significant time and cost savings for both service providers and the public authorities; suggests, to this end, that, in the case of multiannual contracts, checks for over-compensation should be carried out only at the end of the contractual period;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Calls on the Commission to ensure the effectiveness of the ‘Guide to the application of the European Union rules on state aid, public procurement and the internal market to services of general economic interest, and in particular to social services of general interest’ of 7 December 2010 for the benefit of the public authorities and operators; calls on the Commission, if it proves necessary, to make available to public authorities and operators a methodology for instruction to guide them towards the proper application of these rules;
Amendment 72 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Welcomes the Commission’s intention to introduce a ‘de minimis’ arrangement in respect of small-scale state aid to undertakings entrusted with the operation of SGEI where the locally limited scale of the activity means that only a negligible impact on trade between Member States is likely and where it is ensured that the compensation is used exclusively for the operation of the SGEI in questionsmall-scale SGEI of a social nature; asks the Commission to ascertain whether SGEI in the field of culture and education should also be the subject of a special arrangement;
Amendment 76 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on the Commission to propose appropriate thresholds for the ‘de minimis’ arrangement; suggests as a possible reference in this respect the combined indices of size of municipality, amount of compensation payment and level of turnover of the undertaking entrusted with the operation of the serviceconsiders that the amount of the aid is the only criterion which will ensure easy and equitable application; considers furthermore that a threshold calculated over three financial years affords the requisite flexibility;
Amendment 97 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Welcomes the Commission’s assertion that it wishes to exempt in principle further categories of SSGI from the requirement that aid to them be the subject of notification; calls for an assessment as to whether such an exemption should extend to care facilities for elderly people or people with disabilities, or to healthas is already the carse facilitieor hospitals;
Amendment 101 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Considers that the special remit and character of SSGI should not only be protected but should also be clearly defined under sector-specific rulesand clearly defined; calls on the Commission therefore to assess what would be the most effective way of attaining this objective;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Points out that if the undertakings entrusted with the operation of SGEI are selected on the basis of efficiency criteria then the fourth condition set by the Court of Justice ruling in the Altmark case is fulfilled, and that, subject to observance of the three remaining conditions, the compensatory payments do not, according to the case law of the Court, constitute state aid within the meaning of Article 107(1) TFEU; recalls, in this connection, that the use of an equitable and transparent procedure remains the best way of assessing these efficiency criteria a priori;