Future Directions in Public Service Partnerships in the EU

Public-Private Partnerships reveal complex forms of co-operation between the state and private actors which exceed the remit of traditional contractual interface, moving into a strategic sphere of public sector management. Public-Private Partnerships aim at delivering both infrastructure facilities and public services and are regarded as attractive and credible solutions to the infrastructure deficit of many developed and developing states. In this chapter a conceptual forecast of the legal and regulatory mapping of Public-Private Partnerships will be attempted. In this article, the author will elaborate on the current and future legal trends within which the regulation of public service partnerships has been developed. The article will reflect on societal needs which need calibrating in terms of expectation, but mostly perception when faced with the modalities of public service partnerships for the delivery of public services. Finally, the article will attempt to cast a conceptual map of the challenges for the development of the law and regulation in relation to public service partnerships, by depicting their interface as public services instrument, as investment instruments and as economic growth instruments.