The German government has confirmed that the remaining postal monopoly of Deutsche Post will beabolished at the end of 2007 even if other EU countries delay opening their domestic postal
markets.“Germany will completely open the national mail market on January 1, 2008,” declared DagmarWöhrl, state secretary in the German economics ministry, which is responsible for the postalsector, in the Die Welt newspaper. Under German postal legislation, Deutsche Post’s exclusivelicence runs out on December 31, 2007. Unions and some politicians had been pressing for thelicence to be extended due to the absence of simultaneous liberalisation throughout Europe.
But Wöhrl said that Germany’s decision would hopefully persuade other EU member states to “take the path of liberalisation right to the end”. She described as “unrealistic” DeutschePost’s concern that ‘one-sided’ liberalisation could lead to the German postal operator losingrevenues in its home market without it being able to compete fully in other European markets.
Britain and Sweden are so far the only other EU countries that have completely opened uptheir domestic mail markets to competition. In most other EU states, including Germany, thenational postal operator still has a monopoly on letters weighing up to 50 grams, which effectivelycovers the bulk of the postal correspondence sector.
The European Commission has proposed that all EU postal markets should be fully liberalisedwith effect from January 2009. This proposal is due to be debated and decided during Germany’s EUpresidency in the first half of 2007. But up to a dozen EU states have already expressed certainabout the impact of liberalisation on the financing of their universal postal service.
