Communication of General Interest

As a follow up to President Barroso's 2009 political guidelines [900 KB] and the commitment made in the Single Market Act, the Commission adopted on 20 December 2011, a Communication on a Quality Framework for Services of General Interest (SGI) in the EU .

The quality framework consists of three complementary strands of action:

• Enhancing clarity and legal certainty on how EU rules apply to services of general economic interest (SGEI), and revising the rules when necessary to ensure that specific needs are catered for. Together with the Communication, the Commission presented the reform of two key sets of rules – one for state aid for SGEI and one for public procurement/concessions - both of which will increase flexibility and simplification for EU countries when providing these services. These reforms also aim at increasing convergence between both policies, to provide a simpler approach for stakeholders.
• 
  
• Ensuring access to essential services: the Commission will take forward its commitment to ensure access for all citizens to essential services in specific sectors building on recent actions in the field of basic banking, postal services, electronic communications, transport and energy.
• 
  
• Promoting quality: the Commission will reinforce its commitment to promoting quality in the field of social services, and will use the achievements in this area as a model for other services of general interest.