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June 3, 2003
June 2003 -- pdf
version of this document
The G8 meets this week
on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Evian. Appropriately, the summit has
identified water as one of its key themes, with talk of a 'global plan' to
meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people
without access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015.
Yet across the lake,
in Geneva itself, EU trade negotiators are using the services negotiations
of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to open up other countries' water
sectors for the benefit of Europe's private sector water industry. Under
the 'progressive liberalisation' programme of the General Agreement on
Trade in Services (GATS), the EU has targeted the water sectors of 72
other WTO member countries for liberalisation - including developed,
developing and least developed countries alike.
The EU has made no
secret of the fact that it sees GATS as "first and foremost an
instrument for the benefit of business, and not only for business in
general, but for individual service companies wishing to export services
or to invest and operate abroad." Building on the EU's attempt to
include 'water for human use' under the category of environmental services
in the current GATS negotiations, an internal memo from the European
Commission to Thames Water confirmed:
One of the main
objectives of the EU in the new round of negotiations is to achieve real
and meaningful market access for European service providers for their
exports of environmental services.
European service
providers dominate the global water market. The world's top two private
sector water companies, Vivendi and Suez (both French), control 70% of all
private water services between them. The third largest is Thames Water,
now part of German utilities conglomerate RWE. For these companies and
their smaller competitors (most also European), GATS promises access to
new markets and enhanced rights.
Yet the liberalisation
of water has caused grave problems in many countries, where the
involvement of foreign multinationals has typically raised water tariffs
far beyond the reach of poor households. Any country making GATS
commitments in water would bind in such liberalisation for the future,
making it effectively impossible for it to reverse the liberalisation -
despite its negative impacts on the poor.
There has been massive
opposition from across the world to the EU's GATS water requests. Several
EU member states have criticised the requests, making charges of EU
hypocrisy at a time when (quite rightly) the EU is not offering its own
water distribution services for liberalisation under GATS. Even parts of
the private sector water industry itself have spoken out against the
inclusion of water in the GATS negotiations, and developing countries such
as South Africa have called for water to be taken out of GATS altogether.
In
view of the potential damage which GATS liberalisation commitments could
cause to vulnerable communities worldwide, we call on the EU - and in
particular its G8 members: France, Germany, Italy and the UK - to withdraw
its water requests of other WTO members immediately.
We
also call on the EU to withdraw its proposal to reclassify the GATS
category of environmental services, by which it intends to bring 'water
for human use' into the current GATS negotiations.
Reposted from www.gatswatch.org
Signatories (May 26 2003):
- 11.11.11 (Coalition of the Flemish North South
Movement), Belgium
- ACME (Association pour un Contrat Mondial sur l'eau),
France
- Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network
- Agir Ici, France
- AIDWATCH, Australia
- Alliance for Democracy, United States
- Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL), the
Philippines
- Appropriate Development Panel, United Kingdom
- Artjol, Spain
- ASEED Europe
- ASEED Japan
- Asia House, Germany
- Asia Pacific Network on Food Sovereignty (APNFS)
- Australian Greens
- ATTAC Austria
- Attac Colombia Madre Tierra
- ATTAC Denmark
- ATTAC France
- ATTAC Italy
- ATTAC Japan
- ATTAC London, United Kingdom
- ATTAC Netherlands
- ATTAC Spain
- ATTAC Sweden
- Bangladesh Krishok Federation
- Berne Declaration, Switzerland
- Bond Beter Leefmilieu Vlaanderen, Belgium
- Both ENDS, Netherlands
- Bretton Woods Project, United Kingdom
- Bund fr Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) /
Friends of the Earth, Germany
- Buro Ver(?)antwoord, the Netherlands
- Business Watch Indonesia
- Campagna della Riforma della Banca Mondiale (CRBM),
Italy
- Center for Encounters and Active Nonviolence, Bad
Ischl, Austria
- Center for International Studies, Managua,
Nicaragua
- Center for Environmental Public Advocacy, Slovakia
- CETIM (Europe - Third World Center), Switzerland
- CESTA / Friends of the Earth El Salvador
- Citizens' Network on Essential Services, United
States
- COECOCeiba / Friends of the Earth Costa Rica
- Colibri (Globenet3 Germany)
- Council of Canadians, Canada
- Comitato Italiano per il Contratto Mondiale
dell'Acqua, Italy
- Comite Social pro Vida, Cochabamba, Bolivia
- Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida,
Cochabamba, Bolivia
- Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
- Development VISIONS, Pakistan
- Dreiknigsaktion/Kath. Jungschar, Austria
- Environmental Foundation / Friends of the Earth Sri
Lanka
- EQUATIONS (Equitable Tourism Options), India
- Federacin de Trabajadores Fabriles de Cochabamba,
Bolivia
- Focus on the Global South, Thailand, India and
Philippines
- Folkebevegelsen for bevaring av vann som fellesgode,
Norway
- Foundation for Community Development, Mozambique
- Franciscans OFM - Justice, Peace and Integrity of
Creation (JPIC) office, Italy
- Friends of the Earth Canada
- Friends of the Earth Slovakia
- Gender and Economic Reforms in Africa, Ghana
- GRESEA (Research group for an alternative economic
strategy), Belgium
- INFOG (Indonesian Forum on Globalization),
Indonesia
- Initiative Civilcourage, Germany
- Initiatives de Dveloppement Stratgique, France
- Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP),
United States
- Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF),
Philippines
- Inter-Congregational Environmental Working Group,
Italy
- International Committee for the Global Water
Contract (Lisbon and Brussels)
- IRENE Network on Labour and Development, the
Netherlands
- JACSES, Japan
- JPIC Commission of the Society of the Divine Word
Missionaries, Japan
- JPIC Secretariat of the Claritian Missionaries,
Italy
- Jubilee Kansai Network, Japan
- Jubilee Kyushu on World Debt and Povery, Japan
- JustWorld International, France
- Kenya Rainwater Association
- KOSA Co-ordination Southern Africa, Germany
- Lunaria, Italy
- Marist Brothers of the Schools - Bureau of
International Solidarity, Italy
- Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC),
Mexico
- Milieudefensie / Friends of the Earth Netherlands
- Monitoring Sustainability of Globalization (MSN),
Malaysia
- Municipal Services Project, South Africa and Canada
- Mwelekeo Wa Ngo (MWENGO), Eastern and Southern
Africa
- Naturschutzbund Vorarlberg, Germany
- Nei til EU Sandefjord, Norway
- Norwegian Church Aid , Norway
- L'Observatoire des transnationales, France
- ODA Watchers, Japan
- Organisation pour le Renforcement des Capacites de
Developpement (ORCADE), Burkina Faso
- Oxfam, United Kingdom
- Oxfam-Solidarity, Belgium
- Polaris Institute, Canada
- PROTOS, Belgium
- Public Services International (PSI)
- Public Citizen, United States
- REDES / Friends of the Earth Uruguay
- Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary - JPIC
Network, USA
- Research Foundation for Science, Technology and
Ecology, India
- Rete di Lilliput, Italy
- Save the Children, United Kingdom
- School Sisters of Notre Dame, Italy
- Shripad Dharmadhikary, Manthan Adhyayan Kendra,
India
- Social Watch
- SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational
Corporations), The Netherlands
- Sweetwater Alliance, Michigan, USA
- Tearfund, United Kingdom
- Transnational Institute (TNI)
- La Unidad Ecologica Salvadorea (UNES), El Salvador
- Unione degli Universitari, Italy
- UNISON, United Kingdom
- VODO (Flemish Platform on Sustainable Development),
Belgium
- WALHI (Indonesian Forum for Environment) / Friends
of the Earth, Indonesia
- War on Want, United Kingdom
- WaterAid, United Kingdom
- Water Pressure Group, Auckland, New Zealand
- Water Watch Penang, Malaysia
- Wells for India, United Kingdom
- Weltumspannend Arbeiten, Austria
- WEMOS, the Netherlands
- Werkgroep Globalisering Delft-Den Haag, the
Netherlands
- Women's Intenational League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF),
Netherlands section
- World Development Movement, United Kingdom
- World
Economy, Ecology & Development (WEED), Germany
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