The Future of Public Services in Europe

By Catherine Needham and Alasdair Murray

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. Many assume that electorates are becoming less willing to pay for new services. Governments are also finding that European Union budgetary and competition rules are increasingly constraining the way 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.

In April 2005 the UK public services union UNISON and its German equivalent Ver.di came together at a special seminar in London to discuss joint strategies for promoting public services across Europe. This discussion document prepared by Catalyst and the Centre for European Reform seeks to outline some ideas on how the debate over 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.

Prepared by Catalyst and the Centre for European Reform

for UNISON and Ver.di