Strasbourg, 13/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the report by Markus Ferber, Christian Democrat, was adopted by the European Parliament, which effectively paves the way for the final adoption of the Draft Directive that would mark a new step towards opening up the postal services to competition (see EUROPE 25-26 February page 12). According to the rapporteur, the Council has already contributed to the agreement on the amendments submitted by the EP on its common position. MEPs adopted the amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Committee on the Internal Market. One MEP has re-established the initial definition of "ordinary post and internal correspondence" that figures in the 1997 Directive. The reference to "traditional postal services" is no longer needed given that special services have been withdrawn from the initial Commission proposal by both the Council and Parliament. The second amendment calls for the Commission to present a report to the Council and Parliament every two years (for the first time at the end of 2004) on the application of the Directive, in a way that they can follow the development of the postal services internal market and "take action at a political level". Reacting to the EP vote, Frits Bolkestein, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, declared, "I very much welcome this positive step by the European Parliament a few days ahead of the Barcelona Summit. Implementing the Internal Market for postal services is one of the major structural reforms that Europe needs."
In addressing a press conference, rapporteur, CSU MEP, Markus Ferber, asserted that the reform that they were currently initiating would continue after 2003 and 2006. He explained that four countries were already going beyond his own proposals: Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden, which have already totally liberalised. Mr Ferber pointed out that things were moving in the United Kingdom as well but regretted the resistance to liberalisation in France. He said that in ten years time the postal monopoly would be a thing of the past, with a certain number of advantages for everyone: new products in the postal sector; rapprochement of costs in the different countries (which would be good for Germany, his own country, he declared, which is the most expensive in this field); greater job prospects (up to now the opposite has occurred with increased job losses).