The future of public services in Europe
Across Europe there is a rising sense of crisis over the ability of governments to adequately fund and provide public services. Governments fear that demographic and technological changes will make it increasingly difficult to guarantee universal services over the next two decades. Governments are also finding that European Union budgetary and competition rules are increasingly constraining the way in which they provide services.
In the support they provide for shared values of equality and solidarity, public services can be seen to lie at the heart of the European "social model". Their future is thus of particular concern to public service trade unions - not only in providing employment to their current and future members but also in upholding the principles and advancing the kind of society that trade unions have traditionally stood for.
This discussion document was commissioned from the thinktanks Catalyst and the Centre for European Reform in preparation for a joint seminar on the future of European public services held by UNISON with its German equivalent ver.di. It explores the current debate and seeks to outline some ideas on how the debate on public services might evolve over the next decade, with a particular view to stimulating productive thought and discussion as to how public service trade unions can best respond to these challenges.
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• The UNISON contact for the Positively Public campaign is Margie Jaffe.
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