Postal competition in Europe is still some way from being achieved, despite the ending of themail monopolies in 11 EU countries this week, according to the Consumer Postal Council (CPC).
The CPC, set up in 2003 to promote a delivery marketplace that is free of the distortions ofgovernment monopolies and other government privileges, said: “On 1 January, 11 member states of theEuropean Union ended their postal monopolies, although observers expressed concern that actualcompetition has been slow to develop across much of the continent.”
Under the terms of the EU’s Third Postal Directive, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France,Ireland, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain joined the six countries which have alreadyended postal monopoly rights for the traditional national carrier – Estonia, Finland,Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In these nations, the last and largestreserved area of the mail – letters up to 50 grams – are open to competition.
Ten EU member states – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Luxemburg, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,Poland, Romania, and Slovakia – have been granted an additional two years to implement fullliberalisation.
As a result, some 95% of the EU’s internal postal market is liberalised, CPC said, but added: “Although the legal framework of open competition has in theory been activated, definitions ofcritical terms and interpretations of requirements continue to vary widely among EU member nations.Since the Universal Service Obligation (USO) still falls without exception to the traditionalnational carrier, policies differ as to how USO is defined, how the costs of providing such serviceare calculated, what subsidies are allowable, and how subsidies are to be paid.”
In a recent white paper, the Free and Fair Post Initiative (FFPI) argued that the disparitybetween EU member states on issues ranging from VAT rates to labour rules threatened the success ofpostal liberalisation.
“In order to ensure that liberalization works as intended, FFPI is calling on EU states toremove barriers to entry into the postal market and level the playing field for all postaloperators,” CPC said.
