A majority of those contributors who are in favour of a Community initiative opt for the adoption of guidelines or an interpretative communication, rather than legislative initiatives, for the following reasons: the expected loss of flexibility hindering the smooth development of innovative IPPPs due to the rigidity of legislation, the lack of sufficient experience as yet to adopt legislation valid for many years, the difficulty of providing clarity by means of legislation, which itself requires interpretation, and the urgency of clarification on this matter, which cannot be catered for by a (usually lengthy) legislative procedure.
Some stakeholders argue that an interpretative communication could pave the way for the subsequent adoption of EC legislation. Whatever the case, guidelines or an interpretative communication must deal with concrete cases to be of real value to practitioners.
Only a minority of contributors advocate specific EC legislation on IPPPs, for example in the form of a proper PPP Directive. According to one stakeholder, only EC legislation could harmonise existing national measures, which risk distorting the common market.