PIQUE

News archive

16/06/2009 The final PIQUE Summary Report as well as the finalised Policy Recommendations for the PIQUE project are now available to download.
07/05/2009 PIQUE Policy Paper 5:
"Liberalising Services of General Economic Interest: The Citizen-User Perspective in Six EU Countries" is now available to download.
20/04/2009 Conference "Good Jobs for Good Services?",
24 April 2009: Abstracts of the papers now available.
23/03/2009 PIQUE Policy Paper 4, 'How Companies React to the Liberalisation and Privatisation of Public Services' as well as a new issue of the PIQUE Newsletter are now available online.
23/02/2009 Registration for PIQUE Conference now open. :
'Good jobs for good services?' The impact of privatisation of public services on employment, productivity and service quality',
24 April 2009, Vienna, Austria. To register and for more information, visit the conference page.
18/02/2009 Stakeholder workshop to be held in Berlin:
'Liberalisierung öffentlicher Dienstleistungen – Auswirkungen auf Arbeitsbedingungen und Beschäftigung', organised by WSI in cooperation with the Representation of the European Commission in Germany, 4 March 2009.
18/02/2009 'Privatisation of Public Services and the Need for Regulation': National one-day Workshop Belgium for stakeholders and policy makers
to be held at the Central Economic Council (Centrale Raad voor het Bedrijfsleven) in Brussels on Wednesday, 4 March 2009. By invitation only.
For details, see programme (pdf, 171kB). For further information, contact Thomas Vael.
14/01/2009 "Good jobs for good services? Consequences of liberalisation and privatisation of public services. Hospitals and post services in Poland in European context":
One-day conference to be held in Warsaw, 24th February 2009. Warsaw University, Tyszkiewicz-Potocki Palace.
Main organiser: Institute of Sociology Warsaw University, patron: Center for Social Partnership "Dialog". For further information, please contact Julia Kubisa at kubisaj@is.uw.edu.pl.
09/02/2009 "Privatisation of Public Services and the Need for Regulation" Workshop for stakeholders and policy makers to be held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 17 February 2009.
By invitation only. For details, please contact hermann@forba.at.
29/12/2008 Out now: The New Gold Rush: The New Multinationals and the Commodification of Public Sector Work. Work Organisation Labour & Globalisation Vol 2 No 2.
11/12/2008 PIQUE Conference announcement:
'Good jobs for good services?' The impact of privatisation of public services on employment, productivity and service quality',
24 April 2009, Vienna, Austria.
More details available here.
11/12/2008 Conference Privatisierung und Ökonomisierung von Krankenhäusern in Deutschland, organised by Hans-Böckler-Stiftung and Frankfurt University, Frankfurt, 22-23 Jan 2009 (in German).
Details, programme and registration here.
20/10/2008 Issue 3 of the PIQUE Newsletter is now available online.
15/10/2008 PIQUE Policy Paper 3 is now available to download .
14/10/2008 WSI-Herbstforum: Die Rückkehr des Staates - Öffentliche Verantwortung für Wirtschaft und Beschäftigung , Berlin, 27-28 November 2008 Link:
23/08/2008 A new publication 'Liberalisation and privatisation of public services and strategic options for trade unions' is available to download.
22/07/2008 Europa im Ausverkauf new book in German.
20/06/2008 PIQUE Policy Paper 2 is now available to download .
28/02/2008 PIQUE Policy Paper 1 is now available to download .
29/01/2008 Issue 2 of the PIQUE Newsletter is now available online.
25/01/2008 The PIQUE reports Liberalisation and privatisation of public services and the impact on labour relations' and 'Varieties and Variations of Public-Service Liberalisation and Privatisation in Europe' are now avaialbe to download here.
02/12/07 Start of the PIQUE citizens’ survey. Fieldwork on the representative PIQUE citizens’ survey, for which 1,000 persons each will be interviewed in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK, started today. The survey is to assess the impact of liberalisation and privatisation on the quality of public services. For more information, see here.
21/11/07 More than a hundred trade unionists, academics, representatives from the European Commission and other stakeholders attended the two-day conference on An Alternative to the Market – the social, political and economic role of public services in Europe. The conference was jointly organised by ETUI, EPDU and Saltsa on Nov 19 and 20 in Brussels. Members of PIQUE chaired workshops and Thorsten Schulten and Christoph Hermann presented research results in the plenary session. Other speakers included Ben Fine from SOAS at the University of London, David Hall from PSIRU at Greenwich University in London and Massimo Florio from University of Milan. Some papers are downloadable here.
07/11/07 A half-day workshop on Privatisation of Health Care – a view across the borders (Privatisierung der Gesundheit – Blick über die Grenzen) organised by the Austrian Chamber of Labour in Vienna on Nov 5 attracted a diverse audience made up of doctors, nurses, trade unionists, managers, health experts and other stakeholders. Christoph Hermann presented results from the PIQUE country studies of liberalisation and privatisation of the hospital sector. Presentations can also be found in a special issue of the journal Sozialpolitik in Diskussion downloadable from: http://wien.arbeiterkammer.at/www-403-IP-37814.html.
16/10/07 'Privatisierung von Gesundheit - Blick über die Grenzen'. Montag 5. November, 13-18 Uhr, AK Bildungszentrum, 1040 Wien. Unter anderem stellt Christoph Hermann erste Ergebnisse aus dem PIQUE Projekt vor (Privatisierung und Ökonomisierung im Krankenhausbereich - ein europäischer Vergleich). Flyer als PDF Download
02/10/07 The joint ETUI-REHS, EPSU, SALTSA conference, An Alternative to the Market: The Social, Political and Economic Role of Public Services in Europe, will be held at the International Trade Union House in Brussels on November 19-20, 2007. Workshops and plenary sessions will discuss the vital economic and social contribution of public services, challenge assumptions underlying current EU policies and identify research questions which need to be covered in future EC research programmes. Several members of the PIQUE team will be involved as presenters and chairs. Detailed information, programmes and registration available here.
09/07/07 Conference
"Öffentliche Dienstleistungen unter Privatisierungsdruck",
Marburg University, June 29-30
26/06/07 The PIQUE country reports on privatisation and liberalisation are now availalbe to download now. The countryreports are available for Austria, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the UK for the sectors of electricity, postal services, local public transport and health/hospitals.