European law and delegated management of public services

The Court has played a key role in determining the characteristics of public activities. Its interpretation has also been crucial on the question of the financing of SGEIs and on the possibilities of managing this type of service either through a public authority or quasi-authority or through delegation. In spite of its resistance the French legislator was forced to abandon its public law philosophy by the imposed increase in the place of EU law in its system of standards. The ideological confrontations that systematised the relationship between France and Europe at the beginning of the policy of liberalisation of network services are now giving way to a reflection on the optimisation of management methods for services of an economic nature of general interest. The current debate on the practice of delegation concerns the legal means of enabling two partners public and private to benefit from the potential of their partnership.