European MEPs yesterday formally approved plans to liberalise the EU postal market by 2011 butwith a delay until 2013 for some countries. The European Parliament thus confirmed a compromise
deal reached with EU governments late last year.Under the plan, full liberalisation of the EU postal market, including all domestic services,will formally take place by January 2011, which is two years later than the European Commissionproposed. But Member States which joined the EU after 2004 or with a “difficult topography”, suchas Greece, are entitled to postpone market opening by a further two years to January2013.
A total of 11 countries have decided to postpone liberalisation until 2013. These are Cyprus,Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania andSlovakia.
The EU text makes clear that, in a liberalised market, letters should go on being both deliveredand collected at least once a day, at least five days a week, for every EU citizen, in remote areasas well as cities, the European Parliament stated. The funding for these universal services shouldbe guaranteed if market players prove unable to provide such services profitably. In that case,Member States may decide to set up compensation funds.
MEPs also agreed with the European Council on the principle of reciprocity: in order to avoidmarket distortion and unfair competition, those Member States having opened their markets should beable to refuse authorisation to operators still protected by a national monopoly in another MemberState.
Social considerations should be taken into account in this process of market opening, MEPsalso stressed. Member States will be able to reflect working conditions in their authorisationprocedures. They will also have the right to impose conditions on the supply of postal services fornon-economic reasons, such as compliance with employment conditions and social security schemes,where these are laid down in law or by a collective agreement negotiated between national socialpartners.
In response, the European Commision welcomed the vote as confirming the broad politicalconsensus on the way forward for opening EU postal markets to full competition. The Commission saidit would assist Member States in implementing the new Directive and will take an active role inmonitoring closely market developments to make sure that EU citizens and businesses obtain thebenefits from high quality postal services foreseen by the Directive.
Commission President José Manuel Barroso said: “Postal reform arms Europe’s postal operators forthe challenges and the opportunities of the communications revolution. Postal Services are vitalfor our citizens and businesses. Since the first Postal Directive in 1997 performance, quality andreliability of postal services in Europe have substantially increased to the benefit of all postalusers. This Directive will further stimulate this process. This demonstrates the common commitmentof Parliament, the Council and the Commission to reform to meet the Lisbon goals.”
Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: “This is a shared politicalsuccess: there is a strong consensus on the new postal Directive between EU institutions in linewith the objectives we set out in our proposal. The European Parliament paved the way for the finalagreement. This Directive will further promote innovation, lead to better services and help toreduce cost. Postal operators will have stronger incentives to meet consumer and user needs. Theviability of the sector and the high quality of universal postal services will be strengthened forEU citizens and businesses”.
The Commission said the text voted by the European Parliament reflected the overall politicalagreement between the institutions and maintained the key elements of the Commission’s initialproposal, in particular: the accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services viathe abolition of the reserved area in all Member States; the confirmation of the scope and standardof universal service; reinforcement of consumers’ rights and upgrading of the role of nationalregulatory authorities; the offering of a list of measures Member States may take to safeguard andfinance, where necessary, the universal service.
EU postal reform will continue to require close monitoring of the development of competition,the EU executive said. The Commission will assist Member States with the implementation of theDirective to secure the high quality of services that EU citizens expect.
