Privatisation in the European Union

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1 Privatisation in the European Union

2 Privatisation in the European Union Public Enterprises and Integration by Judith Clifton Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, Open University and University of Leeds, U.K. Francisco Comín Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Spain and Daniel Díaz Fuentes Universidad de Cantabria, Spain SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.

3 A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN DOI / ISBN (ebook) Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2003 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

4 Contents Acknowledgements xi Introduction Chapter One. Deconstructing Public Enterprise 5 I. Unravelling Discourses 7 2. The Emergence of Public Enterprises in Historical Context The Raison d'etre of Public Enterprises Public Finance and Defence Public Banks Lack of Private Initiative Market Failures and Publ ic Services Technological Change The Role of Ideology and Individuals Nationalisation versus Foreign Ownership Public by Default Conclusions 36 Chapter Two. The End of Public Enterprises in Europe? 45 I. Critiques of Public Enterprises and Privatisation The Experie nces of Privatisation in the EU The UK: The Thatcher 'Revolution ' France: From anachronistic nationalisation to 'counter-privatisation' Italy: From Financial Reorganisation to Privatisation of Large Holdings Germany: A Case of Federal Resistance Netherlands: Corporatisation as a model of Public Enterprise 'Freedom' Belgium: From a Financial State to Federal Strategies Denmark: A non-industrial Welfare State Sweden: The Pol icy of Active Ownership Finland: From the Industrial State to the Welfare State Ireland: From postcolonial Public Enterprises 10 European Corporate Strategies Austria: From Nationalisation 10 Mass Privalisation Greece: A Case of Lale Privatisation Portugal: Revolutionary Nalionalisation to Widespread Privatisation Spain: Public Enterprises in the Democratic Period: from 'de-investment' to T otal Privatisation' 72 v

5 vi Chapter Three. European Integration, Market Liberalisation and Privatisation 83 I. Global Privatisation Trends The Myth of the 'British Paradigm' European Privatisation in the face of globlalisation Does Size Matter'! Conclusions 99 Chapter Four. Towards a Logic of Privatisation 103 I. The Evolution of the Public Enterprise Sector in the EU los 2. Competition, Markets and Sectors Manufacturing Finance Transport and Communication Electricity, Gas and Water What's left of Public Enterprises'! Public Services: The General Economic Interest as a Communitarian Process Services of General Inlerest at the Dawn of the Twenty First Century 132 Concl usions 133 Conclusions 139 References 141 Index 173

6 List of Figures Chapter One 1.1. Commonly held assumptions about private/public enterprises. Chapter Three 3.1. EU and OECD resources generated by privatisation Privatisation proceeds relative to GDP , public enterprise sector relative to GDP, privatisation effort and privatisation proceeds per capita

7 List of Tables Chapter Three 3.1. Privatisation proceeds in the EU (in billion dollars) 3.2. Total privatisation proceeds relative to GDP and change in public enterprises relative to GDP Chapter Four 4.1.Impact of salaried employees of public enterprises in the non-agricultural merchantable economy (homogeneous series in terms of EUROSTAT employment database) Average impact of salaried employees, of gross added value and of gross capital formation of public enterprises in the non-agricultural merchantable economy of the EEC-EU Percentage of salaried employees in manufacturing enterprises with majority public participation in the EU Percentage of salaried employees in Financial Services enterprises with majority public participation in the EU Percentage of salaried employees in Transport and Communications enterprises with majority public participation in the EU Telecommunication network industry in the EU in Percentage of salaried employees in Energy (Electricity, Gas and Water) enterprises with majority public participation in the EU.

8 Acknowledgements The authors have a host of people to thank for their support during the writing of this book. The specialised programme of the Fundación Empresa Pública, directed by Pablo Martín Aceña and Francisco Comín Comín, supported the original research project on privatisation in the European Union. The authors also wish to thank colleagues at St Antony s College, University of Oxford, particularly Alan Knight and Valpy FitzGerald, as well as Monica Quijada of the CSIC-Madrid and Pedro Perez Herrero of Instituto Ortega y Gasset, Universidad Complutense, for their help while the privatisation project was in the initial stages. We are also grateful to other colleagues, especially Stanley Metcalfe of CRIC, University of Manchester, and Robin Brown and Phil Taylor, at the Institute of Communications, University of Leeds. Participation in the latter s online MA in Media Management allowed us privileged insight into the inner workings of the valued British public corporation, the BBC. Thanks are also due to the Open University s team working on European Social Policy, especially Gerry Mooney, and the Universidad de Cantabria s director of the Masters in International Trade, Transport and Communication, Pablo Coto Millán. Since writing the first drafts our research has been presented at several international congresses and conferences such as the Universidad de Leon s World Economy Society meeting in The authors are also grateful to all the participants of the International Economic History Association at the Université du Québec at Trois-Rivières in October 2001 and at the Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires in July We are in debt to many people who attended these conferences, above all, Pierre Lanthier, and also Martin Chick, Alain Beltran, Dominique Barjot, Patrick Fridenson, Nuno Valerio, Pier Angelo Toninelli, Aron Shai, Henry Vivian Nelles, Claude Bellevance and Pedro Pablo Ortuñez for their comments and encouragement. Attendance at this congress would not have been possible without the dedicated help of the Delelis family. We are also grateful to the students of the Masters in Public Administration at the Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares for their enthusiasm and feedback on the central arguments of the book. Looking to the future, the authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology for their allocation of a research grant to the research team from 2002 to 2005 to continue their work along with another colleague, Lina Galvez-Muñoz. Finally, the authors wholeheartedly thank Margaret and Paul Clifton for their careful revision of the text even when this meant disrupting a busy schedule or potentially spoiling a peaceful holiday.

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