During a meeting with the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, CEEP President and CEEP General Secretary expressed their full support to the mission of restoring growth and jobs in Europe.

Hans-Joachim Reck, President of CEEP, stated: “The European Commission should exploit the full potential of public services as the engine for sustainable growth”. “We are ready to give the full support of public services' employers in the implementation of the new growth agenda”, continued Mr Reck, “provided that this is based on a sustainable and long-lasting growth and consequent creation of employment: CEEP believes that this can only be reached thanks to investments in public services”. That is why CEEP welcomed the commitment of the President of the European Commission to ensuring the swift implementation of the project bond initiative to further stimulate investment in infrastructures across the EU.

Valeria Ronzitti, General Secretary of CEEP added: “In order for public service employers and providers all over Europe to be THE answer towards recovery, the right framework conditions must be set for them to deliver effective and high quality public services”. This means a legal framework adapted to their special nature and missions. In this context, declared Ms Ronzitti, “we ask president Barroso to sign up a set of recommendations aimed at ensuring a full and coherent implementation of the Acquis Communautaire impacting Services of General Interest (SGIs). In our view those recommendations, embraced in a strategy that CEEP called “Acquis + on SGIs”, should guide the upcoming discussions on the achievement of the Single Market”.

At the end of the meeting, CEEP President and CEEP General Secretary reiterated the full commitment of public service providers gathered in CEEP to fully supporting growth, based on high quality public services, able to ensure the link between a well-performing Internal Market and a highly competitive social market economy.

For further information, please contact:

Priya Klinkenberg- tel. +32 (0) 2 219 27 98

CEEP gathers enterprises and organisations from across Europe, both public and private, at national, regional and local level, which are public employers or providers of services of general interest. CEEP members contribute to more than 26% of EU GDP and employ 30% of the EU workforce; CEEP is one of the three general cross-industry European Social Partners.