On Tuesday 13 March, the European Parliament backed the new rules aimed at making cross-border parcel delivery services more transparent, in line with indications given by the transport committee two weeks earlier (see EUROPE 11945). The rejection amendment submitted by British MEP Jill Seymour on behalf of the EFDD Group was not accepted.
The new regulation aims to boost cross-border online trade (see EUROPE 11558) by improving cross-border parcel delivery. At present, tariffs practised by postal operators for delivery of a small parcel in another member state are often five times higher than national tariffs, without there being any clear correlation with real cost.
The new rules do not put a ceiling on such tariffs but they do bring as much transparency as possible in the practices of service provision in order to allow consumers to make a better comparison via an internet site dedicated to this. Further to intense lobbying, the co-legislators decided to limit the tests of affordability of tariffs to those service operators who fall within the public service obligations, when this appears “objectively necessary”.
The regulation was adopted by 604 votes to 80 with 12 abstentions. “The new rules give national regulators greater authority and guidance to investigate cross-border parcel tariffs that fall under the universal service obligation, when suspecting them to be unreasonably high”, applauded Lucy Anderson (S&D, Britain), who is responsible for this dossier.
It is now only up to the Council to finally validate the interinstitutional agreement (see EUROPE 11926), first of all at the Committee of Permanent Representatives on 28 March, and then at the General Affairs Council on 12 April. The draft text may be consulted at: http://bit.ly/2p8XM3O. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)