Legal Relationships between Public Service Operators, Users and Third Parties

• Author: Vasilica Negrut
• Position: Professor, PhD, 'Danubius' University of Galati, Romania
• Pages: 62-65

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2019

62

Legal Relationships between Public

Service Operators, Users and Third Parties

Vasilica Negruț1

Abstract: In this article, we analyse the legal nature of the relations between the local public administration

authorities or, as the case may be, between the intercommunity developments associations with the purpose of

public utilities and users. Law no. 51/2006 on community services of public utilities establishes that they are

subject to legal norms of public or private law, as the case may be. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are

to identify the two categories of legal norms applicable to public utilities in the Community, as well as the

modalities for regulating legal relations between public utility operators and users of these services, based on

the analysis of legal texts, doctrine and jurisprudence.

Keywords: public services; users; legal relations; public service contract

1. Introduction

At present, the community services of public utilities are regulated by a normative act of general

character, namely Law no. 51/2006, as well as by a series of normative acts of special character, among

which: Law no. 101/2006 regarding the sanitation service of the localities; Law no. 241/2006 regarding

the water supply and sewerage service; Law on the Public Power Supply Service no. 325/2006; Law no.

230/2006 regarding the public lighting service; Law on local public transport services no. 92/20072.

Public utilities3 are organized and managed in accordance with the legal provisions, according to the

decisions adopted by the deliberative authorities of the administrative-territorial units, given the degree

1 Professor, PhD, „Danubius” University of Galati, Romania. Address: 3 Galati Boulevard, 800654 Galati, Romania. Tel.: +40

0733 180 305, Corresponding author: vasilicanegrut@univ-danubius.ro.

2 In November 2018, a draft Government Decision for the approval of the Preliminary Theses of the draft Community Services

Code for Public Utilities “was launched in a public debate”, able to facilitate the implementation of the Strategy for

Strengthening Public Administration 2014-2020, approved by the Government Decision no. 909/2014, as amended.” As stated

in the project, “The Community Services Code of Public Utilities will take into account:

a) the definition of the community service of public utilities, taking into account both the national tradition and the legislation

of the European Union and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the definition of other

fundamental concepts for the area concerned: services of general economic interest, obligations of public service, etc.;

b) regulating and defining the principles underlying the organization and delivery of public services (e.g. the principle of equal

treatment, the principle of continuity, the principle of adaptability, the principle of accessibility, the principle of solidarity, the

principle of regionalization, the principle of cost coverage, the principle of supportability, the principle of polluter pays,

sustainability, etc.);

c) inclusion of details on the establishment and functioning of community services of public utilities;

d) regulating, in some chapters, the general aspects regarding the community services of public utilities, as well as the

normative solutions applicable to each community utility of public utilities”. See also (Negruţ, 2008, pp. 99-104).

3 According to art. 1 par. (2) of the Law no. 51/2006, through the community services of public utilities, it is intended to meet

the essential needs of general social utility and public interest of the local communities with regard to: water supply; purge and