In the view of the rapporteur, it is necessary to start to clarify the different concepts of public services and to distinguish between SGIs which are, on the one hand those of a commercial nature and mainly financed by the user, which the EC Treaty qualifies as services of general economic interest (SGEI) in line with Article 16 of the EU Treaty, and, on the other hand, those which are not ...[+++] of a commercial nature and are financed mainly by public or social funds, which may be regarded as services of non-economic general interest (SNEGI), such as services of general interest exercising exclusively social functions or prerogatives of public authorities.

It deals with globalisation and liberalisation, raising the question of whether a general legislative framework should be established at Community level for services of general interest, and seeks to deal with these issues by asking questions about: the impact of any additional Community initiatives to implement the treaty, in full respect of the principle of subsidiarity; the principles likely to be incorporated in any framework legislation on services of general interest and the actual added value of legislation of that kind; the definition of good governance in the organisation, regulation, ...[+++]funding and evaluation of services of general interest; an examination of any new measure likely to be taken to increase legal certainty and facilitate consistent, harmonious coordination between the objective of safeguarding high-quality services of general interest and the rigorous application of the competition and internal market rules.

30. Points out that it is not important that services of general, general economic or even public interest be carried out by the public sector, but rather that it may be freely decided whether services of this kind are to be performed by the public sector itself or by self-employed or private businesses;

The first part outlines the background, the second part discusses the scope of Community action in the area of services of general interest, the third part provides a number of elements for a possible common concept of services of general economic interest, on the basis of existing sector-specific legislation, the fourth part looks at issues related to the way services of general interest are organised, financed and evaluated, and the fifth part addresses the international dimension of services of general interest.

10. The reality of services of general interest which include services of both general economic and non-economic interest, is complex and constantly evolving.

In order to increase legal certainty and transparency in the application of state aid rules to services of general interest the Commission announced in its Report to the Laeken European Council its intention to establish a Community framework for state aid granted for services of general eonomic interest, and then, if and to the extent justified by the experiencegained with the application of this framework, adopt a block exemption regulation in the area of services of general economic interest.