EU GATS requests leaked1 February 2003
On 24 February the European Union's (previously undisclosed) requests to other countries to open up their service sectors as part of the GATS negotiations were sensationally leaked to the Polaris Institute.
One of the most notable aspects of the leaked papers is that, contrary to previous assurances, the EU is requesting developing countries liberalise their water services.
Bangladesh, Botswana, Brazil, Egypt, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay and Tunesia are all subject to requests on water services despite the fact that in October 2002 the European Commission claimed "Requests have been made in the environmental sector, but these do not concern access to water."
Friends of the Earth issued a press release on 25 February warning that in addition to these considerable impacts on developing countries, there are also likely to be huge impacts in the UK.
European Union GATS draft offers leaked
Following hot on the heels of this dramatic leak to the public, the EU's draft offers to other WTO members were leaked and then officially made public several days later.
The European Commision took the incident as an opportunity to commit to publishing its final offers after they have been tabled at the WTO.
Significantly, the EC has made it clear there will be no offers made on education or health services. While this may seem an important victory at first, we need to bear in mind that this is only the first of many rounds of negotiations over the "progressive liberalisation" of services around the world. What's "safe" today may be far from safe tomorrow.
