WRITTEN QUESTION E-1059/01 by Nicholas Clegg (ELDR) to the Commission. GATS applied to public services in public or private ownership.
Date: 2001-04-05
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: GATT, foreign enterprise, market access, private sector, privatisation, public contract, services contract

C 350 E/70

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

11.12.2001

(2001/C 350 E/075)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1059/01

by Nicholas Clegg (ELDR) to the Commission

(5 April 2001)

Subject: GATS applied to public services in public or private ownership

Do the GATS rules apply differently to public services depending on whether such services are in public or
private ownership? Can governments and public authorities restrict access to third-country service
providers in domestic public service markets which have already been privatised?

Answer given by Mr Lamy on behalf of the Commission

(5 June 2001)

Provisions under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) apply throughout, irrespective of
whether ownership of the service provider is private or public. However, all activities linked to the exercise
of governmental authority are excluded from the scope of the GATS.

These general provisions must be read in connection with the specific commitments that each World
Trade Organisation (WTO) Member has taken. This reflects the bottom-up approach of GATS, based on
voluntary, sector-by-sector commitments for the opening to foreign service suppliers. These commitments
indicate the level of market opening for each member in each services sectors and are included in country
annexes attached to the treaty.

It must be underlined that the commitments entered into by the Community and its Member States during
the Uruguay Round do not impair the prerogatives of Member States with regard to the establishment of
the most appropriate organisation of the sector concerned: Members are neither obliged to privatise any
part of the public sector, nor to limit the possibility of subsidising a service.

Whether governments and public authorities can, under GATS rules, restrict access to third country service
providers in domestic public service markets is not a question of whether these have been privatised or not
(which is a domestic policy decision), but depends on whether the Community and its Member States took
any commitments in this respect during the Uruguay Round and if so, what commitments (cid:133) This means
that any decision on privatisation in a specific sector,
if not linked to a specific Community GATS
commitment in the sector concerned, does not provide a legal framework for the provision of services by
foreign suppliers.

(2001/C 350 E/076)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1062/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(5 April 2001)

Subject: Delays in large-scale protection against the parasite disease bilharzia because the pharmaceuticals

industry does not regard a drug as profitable

Is the Commission aware that many thousands of deaths are caused every year in Africa not just by
1.
AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (cid:129) control of which is one of the Commission(cid:146)s concerns (cid:129) but also by the
tropical disease bilharzia which is caused by the minuscule schistosoma flatworm parasite, which lives in
fresh water and water snails, laying eggs in human blood vessels which affect the bladder, intestines and
liver, resulting in many people dying within 10 years?

Is the Commission also aware that there is no simple pill or vaccine available for bilharzia, which
2.
occurs on a large scale amongst
the inhabitants of some African countries, although a pill called
(cid:145)Praziquantel(cid:146) (Biltricide) is available for returning European tourists affected by bilharzia after bathing or
drinking?