EU leaders said after their summit in Brussels on Friday that they would “ensure the financing” ofthe universal postal service, under threat from full liberalisation of the European mail market in
2009.In its concluding statement following the two-day summit in Brussels, the council of memberstates stressed the importance of further liberalisation of the postal market – the EuropeanCommission wants to bring an end to the monopoly held by public postal services over standard mailunder 50g – but added that it should be done “while ensuring the financing of an efficientuniversal service”.
This would appear to open the door to the possibility of national governments continuing tofund public postal operators, with state aid approved by the European Commission, for maintainingthe “universal service” of mail to every address, no matter how remote its location.
French president Jacques Chirac claimed, at a press conference after the summit, that thisrepresented a victory for his country, which is sceptical about the liberalisation and has led agroup of countries opposing the proposals in their present form.
“France has obtained the guarantees it wished on the financing of the universal postalservice,” he remarked.
In all, 12 national delegations have reportedly expressed reservations about the impact offull liberalisation on the universal postal service in their respective countries. Italy has calledfor clearer proposals on how the universal service would be funded and eastern European countriesasked for special transition periods in which to prepare their markets for competition.
In contrast, four delegations, the UK, Germany, Sweden and Finland, have strongly backed theCommission’s proposal.
Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency, is working on a compromise deal foragreement before it hands over the mantle to Portugal on 1 July.
Any agreement to fully liberalise the EUR 90 billion market will also have to be passed bythe European Parliament.
