The ECI Right2Water: where are we now.
The workers gathered in the entrance
hall and on the stairways. George, Christos and many others blocked the
meeting room. They had been called upon by their union OME-EYDAP. The
union leadership was informed that a delegation of the French multinational
company Suez would meet with their bosses on 15 December 2015. The
representatives of the French company would indicate their interest in buying
shares in the company. This would happen in a secret meeting with management
and the Athens water workers were intent on preventing this. And so they did.
The Suez staff came and left when seeing the massive resistance their presence
caused. The union communicated to the press that it would not give up the
struggle to keep the company public. The union members know chasing the
Suez types away will not be the end despite earlier victories. The
privatisation of the water companies is again on the agenda of the Greek
government.
That prospect of Another Europe from Greece.
The situation looked so different in
January 2015. The previous year the Thessaloniki water workers had won their referendum against privatisation of
EYATH. Their allies, the Athens water workers, won their case in the Greek
Supreme Court. It ruled that the water company EYDAP could not be
privatised. Eurogroup President Dijsselbloem, who had welcomed the
privatisation of the water companies, suffered a crushing defeat, when the privatisation
fund TAIPED said it would not pursue the privatisation of the water companies
any more. In an earlier
blog post for this website I was cautious. While these were real victories
for the Greek movement, the underlying balance of power, including with the
Troika, had not changed.
Changing that balance of forces and
cementing the victories of the water and other social movements was at stake in
the Greek parliamentary elections of 25 January 2015. The progressive party
Syriza won by a landslide. Its leader Tsipras was the most popular politician
in the country. The party was voted in on an explicitly anti-austerity
mandate. Parliamentary Speaker Zoi Konstantopoulou solemnly pledged her
support for the implementation of the Human
Right to Water in Greek legislation. The Greek water movement had
campaigned for this following their success in gaining enough signatures to
lift the European Citizens’ Initiative Water
is a Human Right over the threshold in Greece. Tsipras supported
Right2Water as leader of the European left party. Other representatives of
Syriza argued that water should remain outside of the new generation of trade
agreements like CETA and TTIP. This opened up the possibility that the Greek
government could oppose these treaties. They were controversial with many. EPSU
and many others continued to point out the
problems not least for water, health and other public services. Excitement
was in the air. But it was not to be.
The July 12th
deal ends the early optimism.
Following the elections in January, the
Greek government sought to negotiate a deal with its creditors, the Troika. The
new government programme was to get Greece out of its quagmire, stimulate
growth and create jobs. For this austerity needed to end. The country needed
debt relief and investment. Reforms of its tax inspection and other services
were required to fight the tax evasion, fraud and corruption of the country's
financial and economic elite. For many months negotiations continued with the
Troika. A deal was reached with the Eurogroup at the end of June 2015, but
Tsipras declared that the conditions were not acceptable to the government. He
proposed a referendum and Syriza campaigned for a no vote. The Greek people
followed the government and overwhelmingly voted No.
Nevertheless, the government was not
able to use this mandate in a meaningful way. Just three weeks later, it was
forced to agree on new
and harsh terms for a fresh injection of money. EPSU commented in a statement that the new bailout terms
would mean more hardship for workers and people in Greece. The agreement also
underlined that the financial crisis resulted in an economic, social and democratic
crisis. The Austerity Treaty of December 2012 and the straight-jacket imposed
by successive rules made changing course or even modestly adapting it more
difficult. Yanis Varoufakis, the minister of finance, understood this and
resigned after trying. He profoundly disagreed with the 12 July deal. He argued
that adding more debt would not help Greece. He has detailed the background and
reasons for his resignation in many pieces available on his website. The new bail-out terms were
further outlined in a new Memorandum
of Understanding for Greece.
There is an annex to this MoU relating
to the Hellenic
Republic Development Asset Fund. This Fund has been set up by previous
governments under pressure from the Troika. The annex outlines the companies
the Fund needs to sell as part of the commitments to the Troika to get money to
reduce its debt and pay off creditors. The partial privatisation of the
Thessaloniki and Athens water companies figures prominently in the plan
(p.24). This deal with the Eurogroup meant the end of that prospect of
hope and aspiration the Syriza government had represented. It confirmed the
grip of the Eurogroup's austerity regime. And that, according to the now
ex-minister of Finance Varoufakis, was the intent of the Eurogroup deal with
Greece. There is only one way, the austerity way. Or so they say.
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| Photo by Sergiu Bacioiu |
Struggles continue at European level …
As the ex-Greek minister is exploring
the possibilities of establishing a European political movement to democratize
the Eurozone and European Union, inspiration can be taken from the struggles of
Europe's water movement. At the European level it won a significant victory
when the European Parliament's plenary approved the Lynn
Boylan report on the ECI Water is a Human Right on 8 September 2015. The
first version of her report won significant support in the Parliament's
Environment Committee after supporters of Right2Water had sent thousands of messages to MEPs. EPSU
affiliates and many others in the European Water Movement had contacts with
MEPs. It paid off.
The draft welcomed the demands of the ECI Right2Water and the support of all progressive forces in that Committee. Moreover, a handful of individual Christian-democrat and liberal members had supported key amendments to the report on 25 June. The support of the whole European left (GUE/NLG, Greens, S&D) stayed strong, even when the report faced fierce opposition from the right, when it introduced several amendments and an entire alternative motion. Clearly, the aim had been to defeat the progressive parts and make the report toothless. This did not work and the report was adopted.
The draft welcomed the demands of the ECI Right2Water and the support of all progressive forces in that Committee. Moreover, a handful of individual Christian-democrat and liberal members had supported key amendments to the report on 25 June. The support of the whole European left (GUE/NLG, Greens, S&D) stayed strong, even when the report faced fierce opposition from the right, when it introduced several amendments and an entire alternative motion. Clearly, the aim had been to defeat the progressive parts and make the report toothless. This did not work and the report was adopted.
The European Parliament is critical of the
privatisation of water companies. It linked this with the austerity measures of
the European Commission and Troika.
‘18. Calls on the Commission to
recognise the importance of the human right to water and sanitation and of
water as a public good and a fundamental value for all EU citizens and not as a
commodity; expresses its concern that since 2008, due to the financial and
economic crisis and to the austerity policies which have increased poverty in
Europe and the number of low-income households, an increasing number of people
have been facing difficulties in paying their water bills and that
affordability is becoming a matter of growing concern; rejects water cut-offs
and the enforced switching-off of the water supply, and asks Member States to
put an immediate end to these situations when they are due to socioeconomic
factors in low-income households; (...).’
It notes that the European Commission is
not neutral as regards ownership. Parliament
‘21. Stresses that the
Commission’s alleged neutrality regarding water ownership and management is in
contradiction with the privatisation programmes imposed on some Member States
by the Troika’. This applies,
of course, directly to the situation in Greece described above. Parliament
draws attention to the result of many local struggles recognising the
importance of returning companies into municipal ownership.
46. Recalls that the option of
re-municipalising water services should continue to be ensured in the future
without any restriction, and may be kept under local management if so chosen by
the competent public authorities; recalls that water is a basic human right
that should be accessible and affordable to all; highlights that Member States
have a duty to ensure that water is guaranteed to all regardless of the
operator, while making sure that the operators provide safe drinking water and
improved sanitation;
The report also argues that water should
be excluded from trade agreements like CETA and TTIP. The European Water
Movement's analysis
of how the EU-Canada trade agreement would impact on water services makes
abundantly clear why this is important. Parliament therefore
47. Stresses that the special
character of water and sanitation services, such as production, distribution
and treatment, makes it imperative that they be excluded from any trade
agreements the EU is negotiating or considering; urges the Commission to grant
a legally binding exclusion for water services, sanitation services and
wastewater disposal services in the ongoing negotiations for the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement;
stresses that all future trade and investment agreements should include clauses
on genuine access to drinking water for the people of the third country to
which the agreement pertains in line with the Union’s long-lasting commitment
to sustainable development and human rights, and that genuine access to
drinking water for the people of the third country to which the agreement
pertains must be a precondition for any future free trade agreements;
EPSU and Right2Water welcomed the vote. The ECI has the support not only
of a broad alliance of organisations and 1.9 million citizens but also the
overall majority of the European Parliament. It is now up to the European
Commission to review its Communication of March 2014 and propose legislation to
recognise the Right2Water in the EU. EPSU and the European Water Movement
have
written to the Commissioner responsible for water issues, Karmenu Vella,
demanding action. We will have to keep up the pressure to get meaningful
initiatives.
... and at local level
Not only are Greek water workers
fighting back against the unjust Eurogroup agreement. All Greek workers have
shown continued resistance to the measures the Syriza government is now
executing. During an EPSU mission
we met with George, Anthony and other colleagues of the Greek union GENOP-DEH.
They represent workers in the Public Power Company PPC. The Troika has
imposed the privatisation of part of this company: the transmission network
ADMIE. The Eurogroup deal says that the Greek government should "proceed
with the privatisation of the electricity transmission network operator (ADMIE),
unless replacement measures can be found that have equivalent effect on
competition, as agreed by the Institutions. This frankly is nonsense. The
ownership of the transmission network has little to do with promoting
competition. The proposal goes against the EU Directives. It does show that the
EU is not neutral as regards to the question of ownership. The Greek unions and
Syriza have proposed alternatives in line with the directives, but they have
been rejected by the Troika. It becomes clear that what the Troika is really
after is the money. It thereby ignores that especially in a competitive market
a state owned transmission network is probably the best guarantee of the public
interest.
A source of inspiration
The water struggles are bringing many
different groups together. As water is the source of life, these struggles have
wider appeal. If given a choice, people do not think water services should be
run based on commercial principles. And they are prepared to defend and fight
for public water. The same is true for health and education, and many other
public services. Keeping these services out of trade agreements is one of the
reasons this movement brings so many together.
We know that our local, national,
European and even global struggles are connected. The ECI Right2Water was one
way to give expression to this awareness of how these struggles are connected.
It has been successful. But as Andreas Bieler wrote in his
assessment, we need to consolidate this success and build on it further.
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