Education policy faces similar threats from the ongoing TTIP negotiation and the Services directive
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A recent EurActiv article illustrates how education policy faces similar threats from the ongoing TTIP negotiation and the Services directive. The European Commission's DG Internal Market initiated an infringement case against Slovenia's Higher Education Act back in 2011 based on the Services Directive. The European Commission claims that the Slovenian law is "incompatible with freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services" in its reasoned opinion. This is despite that fact that the provisions' of the Service Directive clearly exclude education as a service of general interest and special meaning from the scope of the directive.
Crucially, the European Commission is thereby disregarding that education is the exclusive competence of the member states. The article also highlights that the ETUCE prior to the adoption of the Service Directive warned against the threats education policy could be faced with. Consequently ETUCE campaigned to entirely exclude education from the Service Directive. Likewise ETUCE demands a complete exclusion of education from the TTIP negotiations. The European Commission's claim is that an exclusion of education is not needed in the TTIP when public services like education are protected through a public utilities' exemption clause. With European Commission's infringement case against Slovenia's Higher Education Act, the European Commission has itself demonstrates how crucially it is to exclude education entirely from the ongoing TTIP negotiations.