EU Commission Forces Crisis-hit Countries to Privatise Water

The European Commission is deliberately promoting privatization of water services as one of the conditions being imposed as part of bailouts, it acknowledged in a letter to civil society groups on 26 September 2012 (see below).

EU Commissioner Olli Rehn’s directorate was responding to questions posed in an open letter concerning the European Commission’s role in imposing privatisation through the Troika in Greece, Portugal and other countries.

The civil society groups have today written to Commissioner Rehn to demand that he stop “any further pressure to impose water privatisation conditionalities” (see the letter below).

The Commission’s push for privatisation disregards the fact that water privatisation has failed to deliver results in Europe and around the world. Paris and many other cities have recently remunicipalised their water services due to negative experiences with privatisation.

See below for the full press release.

The EPSU/PSIRU publication Why water is a public service – exposing the myths of privatisation details how wrong the Commission position is.