The 12 EU national postal operators who oppose the European Commission’s plans to liberalise thesector still want changes to text of the directive after the European Parliament approved a
two-year delay last week.In a statement they said that while the amendments to the directive, putting liberalisationback from 1 January 2009 to the beginning of 2011, were welcome, there were still important legal,economic and technical questions arising from the text, which is now before member states for finalapproval later this year by the EU Council of Ministers.
The postal operators of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia,Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia oppose the liberalisation directive in its current form.
“While the Parliament has put an end to the uncertainty of financing the universal serviceand risks concerning social dumping, the follow-up of discussions on these points (legal, economicand technical) is more necessary than ever,” the statement said.
“(We) call on the Council to follow the prudent approach adopted by the European Parliamentand enrich the project of the directive by responding to the points still in question in order toovercome the next stages of liberalisation.”
Euro MPs last Wednesday voted to end the below 50g mail monopoly in most EU members states –but at the start of 2011 and not 2009 as the European Commission had wanted.
Countries such as the UK, Sweden and Finland, where the markets are already fullyliberalised, the Netherlands and Germany, support the Commission’s proposal to liberalise the EUletters market by 1 January 2009.
