Brussels, 20/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - François Loos, French minister for industry wrote to Charlie McCreevy, European Internal Market Commissioner, last week to express his commitment to the maintenance of the universal postal service, it is reported in Le Figaro. He said that funding arrangements for this universal service should meet two requirements: legal security and retention of funding at a level equivalent to current arrangements. “If these two conditions are not met, the current arrangements, that is, a sector reserved for the postal operator in charge of the universal service, would have to be retained,” he said.
On the initiative of Alain Hutchinson (PES, Belgium), the online petition “SOSposte.eu” has just been launched. “This European directive, if adopted, would have disastrous consequences for us, the citizens: a great number of job losses, an increase in prices, the loss of service to those who need it most in our communities - the elderly and frail - who would never be financially viable customers for private companies,” reads the campaign website. (For information: http: //http://www.sosposte.eu )
French Socialist Bernard Poignant believes that the Commission's draft directive is “not helpful”. He points out the four points to be retained for French clients: a six-day delivery service, from Monday to Saturday; uniform pricing; full coverage of the country, certainty of reasonable prices for the service provided. His counterpart Béatrice Patrie gave her “full support” to last week's national postal workers' strike in France, which was not well supported on the ground. In a press release, she expresses her “serious questions” on the consequences for customers of full liberalisation of the postal market. “The Swedish experience, where the postal sector has been liberalised for a number of years, is hardly convincing. We have seen a reduction in staff employed … at the same time as an increase in charges to customers,” she says.
In mid-October, the Commission proposed to complete the liberalisation of the postal sector in 2009, by opening to competition the last segment of the market that is still a public monopoly - mail weighing less than 50 grammes (see EUROPE 9289). (mb)