Rehn: Greek government responsible for privatizing water, not Brussels
Responsibility for the decision to privatize water utilities lies with the Greek government and not the European Commission, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Monday.
“The options regarding which, to what degree and in which sequence public enterprises or public assets have to be privatized is the exclusive responsibility of member states, taking into account the various difficulties they face and the targets they have set,” he said in a reply to a question by SYRIZA Euro MP Nikos Hountis regarding the privatization of the Thessaloniki Water and Sewerage Company (EYATH).
He noted that there is a wide range of methods for managing water supply services in the European Union, and examples of problems and successes are to be found in both publicly and privately managed models.
Both EYATH and its Athens counterpart, EYDAP, are on the government’s list of public assets to be partly privatized.
