Royal Mail wants full liberalisation of the 88 billion euro European postal market in 2009. TheEU should agree on 2009 as a “firm target” for a single European postal market as part of the
forthcoming third European postal directive, Carl-Gerold Mende, the UK post office’s internationaldirector, told the World Postal Business Forum at the Post-Expo trade fair in Paris.Under current planning, the UK will fully de-regulate its domestic market on January 1, 2006. InGermany, Deutsche Post’s exclusive licence will end on December 31, 2007, while the Netherlands mayalso liberalise earlier than the rest of the EU. The European Commission, which in the past hasaimed for postal liberalisation throughout Europe in 2009, is due to publish a report next year onthe next stage of market opening. Political decision-making is scheduled for 2007.
Mende also said the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which defines the extent of the nationalpostal service and network, should in future became a “safety net” for consumers and small- andmedium-sized enterprises in areas of the market least attractive for competition. The postal B2Bmarket, in contrast, should be fully opened to competition. The EU also needed to agree on thefuture role of national postal regulators, he stressed.
The European mail market, worth 88 billion euros in 2002, was attractive given profit margins ofup to 20 per cent and the future growth potential through direct marketing (personalised bulkadvertising mail), Mende noted.
