Economat shops set to be rescued from closure

Date: 26/04/01

By Simon Taylor

The European Commission's in-house shops are to be saved from closure - provided a private firm can be found to run them.

A spokesman for administrative reform Commissioner Neil Kinnock said that the two Economat stores will remain open after the end of this year if an acceptable offer is received from outside companies to manage them. "The plan is to get a viable commercial private solution," said Eric Mamer.

He denied that Kinnock had backtracked on earlier plans to shut the shops, which are subsidised by the Commission. "We never said we were going to close them. All we said was that we will take back the staff."

EU executive unions launched a major protest last year when Kinnock said that he wanted to change the way the Economats were run, accusing him of acting like a demagogue by targeting what is widely seen by outsiders as an indefensible perk.

Unions argue that the stores provide valuable shopping opportunities in areas where there are few alternatives. They point out that other international organisations such as NATO and the European Parliament have their own on-site stores.

But one staff union official said that he believed the Economats would be closed by the end of this year.

The Commission subsidises the stores in Brussels and Luxembourg by providing staff, premises, utilities and accounting services for free.

Kinnock's spokesman said the question of charging rent would depend on offers received from firms bidding to run the operation. Contrary to public perception, the goods sold in the shops, including Commission own-brand Champagne, are not duty-free but are in some cases cheaper than in ordinary shops because of the cost savings.

The Economats were set up in the early days of the European Community to offer domestic specialities which officials posted to the EU institutions could not find in local shops in Brussels and Luxembourg.

The European Commission's in-house shops are to be saved from closure - provided a private firm can be found to run them.