Brussels, 13/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - An agreement is in sight between the political groups EPP-ED, PES and ALDE of the European Parliament on the total opening-up of the postal sector to competition, Markus Ferber (EPP-ED, Germany), rapporteur for the EP on the revision of the postal directive, declared in a press release on Wednesday 13 June. “I am expecting a majority in favour of the agreement at the vote in the Parliamentary committee (on transport) on 18 June (…). My feeling is that we have taken account of the interests of all of the member states” he declared, stating his view that the Council will be in a position to approve it.
Under the terms of the agreement, the broad outlines of which EUROPE has already unveiled (see EUROPE 9433), the removal of the last area which can be reserved for a historic public operator - which is the handling of mail weighing less than 50 g - will take place no later than 31 December 2010. An additional postponement of two years can be applied in member states which joined the EU recently and those with remote territories and many islands. A geographical range clause stipulates that a public postal operator in charge of a reserved area in its member state may not compete in another member state in which the market is already totally opened up. This clause will prevent “protected monopolies” from acting like “cannibals on the liberalised markets”, according to Mr Ferber.
The proposed directive does not modify the details of the universal postal service (see EUROPE 9289), the main point of which is to set conditions for the funding of this universal service in a completely competitive environment. The informal agreement between the three main political groups provides, amongst other things, for the creation of a fund to which the postal operators within a member state will contribute and the possibility for the member states to grant state aid. According to Mr Ferber, the national plans for the funding of the universal postal service must be presented for the approval of the European Commission.
Lastly, the agreement will make the granting of a licence to a postal operator conditional upon the operator's respect for employment law and provisions on the minimum wage in force in the member state in which it is active. (mb)