EU Commission forces crisis-hit countries to privatise water

In a letter to civil society groups form the European Commison, the EC confirms that it is is deliberately promoting privatization of water services as one of the conditions being imposed as part of bailouts.

This is a response to questions posed in an open letter concerning the European Commission’s role in imposing privatisation through the Troika in Greece, Portugal and other countries.

The civil society groups have now written back to the Commissioner to demand that he stop “any further pressure to impose water privatisation conditionalities”.

The Commission’s push for privatisation disregards the fact that water privatisation has failed to deliver results in Europe and around the world. Paris and many other cities have recently remunicipalised their water services due to negative experiences with privatisation, writes EPSU in a press release.

Read the full press release and the letter to the European Commission.