The French parliament has approved the first article of the draft postal law regarding thetransformation of La Poste into a limited company as of 1 March 2010. The vote on the whole text of
the new law will take place tomorrow (22 December).On 17 December the National Assembly adopted article 1, under which the state is defined asthe majority owner of La Poste with staff as the other possible shareholders. The government thusaims to modernise and adapt La Poste for the forthcoming full postal liberalisation, French mediareported.
French industry minister Christian Estrosi pointed out that the restructuring of La Posteneeds to be seen in relation to European postal market opening. Liberalisation is incompatible withthe status of a public organisation that benefits from an automatic state guarantee, he commented.
For left-wing parties, the vote marks the beginning of a future privatisation. Gérard Bapt(PS) stressed that the transformation of La Poste into a limited company “is heavy in terms of theimpact and the consequences as it means submitting to regulations and norms stipulated by themanagement of private companies that operate in a competitive market.”
“For 30 years, there has been no example of a public institution transformed into a limitedcompany that did not eventually privatise its management with the disappearance of its publicmissions,” he commented.
But the ruling UMP party denounced the “gesticulations”, “rhetoric banter” and the “longtirades” of the socialists regarding the future of La Poste.
The draft postal law contains two parts. One part concerns the European regulation regardingpostal liberalisation in 2011 while the other deals with transforming La Poste into a limitedcompany. Under a subsequent €2.7 billion capital increase, designed to raise financing forstrategic growth, the French government would contribute €1.2 billion and the state-owned Caissedes Dépôts (CDC) a further €1.5 billion. La Poste’s current status as a public organisation (‘établissement public industriel et commercial’) has legally prevented such a capital increase.
The draft law was adopted by the French Senate in November and then passed over to theparliament. Last week, the French government postponed the restructuring of La Poste into a limitedcompany from the original date of January 1 to March 1, 2010, due to delays in parliamentary reviewof the draft postal law.
