The Commission has been wise to follow the European Parliament’s line, cutting social services out of the services directive’ said Anne-Sophie Parent, President of the Social Platform. ‘The Social Platform welcomes the new proposal, which provides for a broad exclusion of social services. This is crucial to ensure that social services users and society at large do not lose out from a directive not suited to the nature of the sector’.

The Social Platform believes that the definition of social services used in the proposal could provide a sufficient basis to cover all social services of general interest. But the text does not achieve the Commission’s aim of legal clarity, so further precisions are needed. ‘The Social Platform expects the forthcoming Communication on social and health services of general interest to clarify the broad definition of social services implied by the new proposal’ said Claire Roumet, Chair of the Social Platform’s Social Services Working Group. ‘Any arbitrary distinctions between different social services would not be acceptable and would cause legal uncertainty for social service providers’[1].

The new proposal is also clear that the directive must be implemented in a way which takes into account social policy objectives, social cohesion and implementation of fundamental rights. ‘This is an encouraging sign the Commission is beginning to respond to demands for a more social Europe. It has taken the Parliament’s cue to abandon the bulldozer approach to completing the internal market and start considering the social impacts’ said Ms Parent.   

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For more information please contact: Kathleen Spencer Chapman, Tel: +32 (0)2 508 1636, kathleen.spencerchapman@socialplatform.org    or visit  www.socialplatform.org