Abstract
The term “French model,” which was often used in the 1990s when the largest French private operators succeeded in obtaining important international contracts in the water sector, was gradually replaced during the 2000s by “public-private partnership” (PPP). PPPs are contractual agreements between a national, regional, or local public agency and one or more private companies for the delivery of a service or the construction of infrastructure. In fact, it would be more accurate to speak of the emergence of a “global model” of public services management, which has been developed particularly in the water sector and used by the largest French water operators worldwide, rather than the internationalization of a given French model.
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Notes
- 1.
Since 1964, France has been divided into six hydrographical basins. Each basin has its own water agency, although the Rhône-Mediterranée and Corse Water Agency is responsible for two river basins. The agencies are in charge of collecting fees related to water conservation and water quality as well as distributing funds to support investments. See Chaps. 2 and 3 for more information.
- 2.
See Chap. 4.
- 3.
A PPP is different from privatization, the latter referring to the transfer of the ownership of a water utility’s assets to the private sector.
- 4.
During the Third Republic (1870–1940)—when French administrative law was elaborating the notion of public service—the Conseil d’Etat (the French Administrative Supreme Court), faced with numerous local objections to the implementation of a form of municipal socialism, regularly referred to the non-mandatory character of public sector interventions: “Companies with a commercial character are, in general, part of the private sector and […] municipal councils can only set up companies of this kind if, due to particular circumstances of time and place, such an approach serves the public interest” (Judgment of the Conseil d’Etat, “Casanova,” March 29, 1901).
- 5.
Now separate from Gaz de France (GDF), EDF changed its legal status in 2004, becoming a public limited company. Although the company was floated on the stock exchange in November 2005, the state retains an 87.3 % share. The EPIC, a management approach based on a public administration model, has been widely applied in a number of areas considered to be either strategic or intimately linked to French government policy in the fields of national planning and development, transport (the national railway company, Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français [SNCF]), and, especially, telecommunications.
- 6.
A département is a territorial and administrative division of France and is managed by a prefect and a general council. It is larger than the communes (referred to in this book as municipalities).
- 7.
See Chap. 6 for more on intuitu personae.
- 8.
The Law of January 29, 1993, “relative to the prevention of corruption and the transparency of economic activity and public procedures,” known as the Sapin Law, introduced a certain formalism and reinforced procedures concerning requests for proposals. The Law of February 2, 1995, “relative to reinforcing the protection of the environment” (the Barnier Law), limited the duration of delegated contracts and ended franchise fees. And the Law of February 8, 1995, “relative to government contracts and the delegation of public services,” known as the Mazeaud Law, obliged delegated companies to produce an annual report of their accounts containing all transactions associated with the contract and an analysis of the quality of the service delivered.
- 9.
See Chap. 8.
- 10.
Particularly in view of the Water Law of January 3, 1992, the introduction of the so-called M49 General Accounting Rule, and the generalization of a binomial tariff.
- 11.
In 1954, the National Fund for the Development of Water Conveyance Infrastructure (FNDAE) was established. The entity was 60 % funded by the Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) lottery, with a license fee paid by local consumers making up the shortfall. The Water Law of December 16, 1964, introduced the river basin agencies (renamed water agencies in 1992), which dedicated most of their resources, the majority of which derived from fees paid by consumers, to combating water pollution (see Table 2.1). Moreover, the General Accounting Rule (M49), initially introduced in the largest local authorities and then rolled out across the country, first drew attention to and then prohibited the transfer of taxpayer contributions towards local consumers. The state also provided financial support for the development of water distribution networks in the form of loans granted by its financial network designed to help the municipalities invest in the sector. Up until the 1980s, the financial institutions linked to the Caisse des dépôts et consignations—a public group that provides financial support for different levels of French government—provided preferential rates to support the municipalities in this drive, initiated by the state, to develop new infrastructure. Lastly, it should be noted that the départements also contributed to the public sector’s efforts to develop drinking water distribution networks not only via direct subsidies, but also through appropriations from the Ministry of Agriculture and, later, the FNDAE. Today, the départements still provide subsidies, a fact that makes it difficult to implement the principle of full cost pricing.
- 12.
See Chap. 8.
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Petitet, S. (2014). From the French Model to a “Globalized Model”. In: Schneier-Madanes, G. (eds) Globalized Water. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7323-3_7
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