The 20th March 2015, the US Ambassador Froman and the EU Trade Commissioner Malmström released a joint statement in which the important role public services play in the United States and the European Union.
« US and EU trade agreements do not prevent governments, at any level, from providing or supporting services in areas such as water, education, health, and social services.
Furthermore, no EU or US trade agreement requires governments to privatise any service, or prevents governments from expanding the range of services they supply to the public. Moreover, these agreements do not prevent governments from providing public services previously supplied by private service suppliers; contracting a public service to private providers does not mean that it becomes irreversibly part of the commercial sector. »
The protection of public services also remains a requirement in negotiations of TTIP and TiSA1.
- European Commission, 20 March 2015, « Joint Statement on Public Services » ↩