Bin Tax / Household Tax / Water Tax Public Private Partnerships are already privatising our public water system 13:00 Dec 19 0 comments Irish Water: Killing off conservation and the real agenda behind water charges 12:03 Jan 18 2 comments RTÉ Primetime Parrots State Propaganda on Water Charges 19:39 Dec 14 1 comments Defeating the water charges - Don’t be fooled by the concessions 23:28 Dec 02 0 comments Water Charges and TTIP! 01:15 Nov 16 0 comments more >>Blog Feeds
Anti-EmpireUkraine Shoots Down F-16 With Patriot, A... Sat Aug 31, 2024 11:53 | Anti-Empire Surprise Offensive Puts 300 km² of Russ... Fri Aug 09, 2024 08:44 | Marko Marjanović The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović
Human Rights in IrelandPromoting Human Rights in Ireland
Lockdown Skeptics
British School Allows Pupil Suffering from ?Species Dysphoria? to Identify as a Wolf Fri Sep 20, 2024 13:00 | Will Jones
Next Warns of Store Closures After Being Ordered by Court to Pay Store Staff the Same as Warehouse W... Fri Sep 20, 2024 11:00 | Will Jones
Covid Vaccines Sharply Raise Risk of Death or Heart Failure, Major New Peer-Reviewed Study Shows Fri Sep 20, 2024 09:00 | Will Jones
BBC?s Rowlatt Claims Climate Change is ?Turbo-Charging? Problems in Somalia Despite Temperatures and... Fri Sep 20, 2024 07:00 | Chris Morrison
News Round-Up Fri Sep 20, 2024 01:28 | Richard Eldred
Voltaire NetworkVoltaire, international editionIsrael must immediately end its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Ter... Wed Sep 18, 2024 08:37 | en On September 10, Israeli settlers became illegal migrants, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Sep 17, 2024 15:46 | en Voltaire, International Newsletter N°99 Sat Sep 14, 2024 06:54 | en The financial lobby pleads for European integration by the bankers Fri Sep 13, 2024 15:38 | en Opposed to Netanyahu, two-thirds of Israelis want to negotiate with Hamas, by Th... Thu Sep 12, 2024 12:17 | en |
Water Charges and TTIP!
international |
bin tax / household tax / water tax |
other press
Sunday November 16, 2014 01:15 by T
This is a repost of an important article on the Irish Left Review website and goes into detail on the connection between the Water Charges and the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which is currently being concluded in secret by the EU and US. The origin of the present water charges lies in the EUs Water Framework Directive (2000) which provided for full cost recovery for water use and whose Article 9 states: ‘Member States shall take account of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services …’ It also required Member States to have in place water-pricing policies by 2010. The Directive was transposed into Irish Law in 2003. So, the origins of these punitive charges, this time around, are the Water Framework Directive which seeks to commodify water provision through the establishment of the principle of recovery of the costs of water services. The EU took advantage of the ‘bailout’ to make it a condition of the ‘loans’. This will open the way for the sale of Irish Water either in whole or in part, ostensibly to complete the single market or to promote competition ‘in the interests of the consumer’. This is just one reason why there is such resistance to a constitutional referendum to permanently retain Irish Water in public ownership – the other is TTIP. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), is currently being concluded in secret by the EU and US. Both sides have made clear their intention to use TTIP to get access to what is described as “public monopolies;” that is, public utilities including water. These services would then be vulnerable to greater outsourcing and private tendering for service delivery and eventually, to privatisation. TTIP would open up public procurement contracts to the private sector, meaning that social, environmental or “public good” goals in public procurement would be removed. A private monopoly can fix its price at an unaffordable level, as Bechtel did in Bolivia, leading to a popular uprising; the termination of the contract and replacement of the government. It would also make the nationalisation (or renationalisation) of services or resources virtually impossible, as incredibly, corporations would be able to sue for loss of future and expected profits. This is facilitated by the inclusion of an (ISDS) Investor – State Dispute Settlement clause in TTIP. The TTIP agreement increases the pressure for the privatisation of ‘services of general interest’, such as water services. Foreign suppliers of services of general interest should not be entitled to claim “forgone profits” through ISDS. This provision, in effect would further legalise neo-liberalism as the economic and social framework in Ireland and the EU. But even if ISDS is removed from TTIP, the main goal remains; to remove regulatory ‘barriers’ which restrict the potential profits to be made by transnational corporations on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet these ‘barriers’ are in reality some of our most prized social standards and environmental regulations, such as labour rights, food safety rules, regulations on the use of toxic chemicals and digital privacy laws. The stakes could not be higher. Public water provision is only one of the services under threat from TTIP. Both water charges and TTIP must be defeated! |