Brussels, 15/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - The compromise amendments on the revision of the postal directive, which rapporteur Markus Ferber (EPP-ED, Germany) will be putting to the vote of the MEPs of the committee on transport of the European Parliament on Monday 18 June, are likely to survive the Parliamentary committee's scrutiny. However, even though the three negotiators from the three main political groups of the EP (EPP-ED, PES, ALDE) have given their support to the package of compromise amendments, it is not easy, at this stage, to make a clear prediction of the attitude of all MEPs of the parliamentary committee, particularly as the 16 compromise amendments will be voted one after the other rather than as a block, contrary to Mr Ferber's wishes. In the view of an observer, this vote will be the first attempt to reach an initial political orientation within the EP on a particularly sensitive dossier, and to oblige the Council to take position. As the plenary session vote is scheduled for the July plenary session, there is no possibility of reaching an interinstitutional agreement at first reading.
There are many shades of grey within the political groups. Certain EPP-ED group MEPs from the new member states are believed to have a few problems with the additional time to be granted to the new member states to open up their postal market to competition. According to the spokesperson of the Socialist group, at the vote of the Parliamentary committee “there will be a consensus (of the PES group) on the amendments, with the possibility of delegations expressing different opinions” on certain points. All eyes will be turned to the attitude of the French and Belgian Socialists (possibly also of the Greek Socialists), who may be tempted to take a hard line, due, in large part, to the backdrop of elections in France and Belgium. Within the PES group, an in-depth discussion on the dossier will not take place until after the vote at first reading. The Liberals, for their part, are likely to give their unreserved support to the compromise amendments, which they describe as “entirely reasonable”. Made up of 51 members of the European Parliament, the committee on transport is made up of, amongst others, 18 MEPs from the EPP-ED group, 14 MEPs from the PES group and six ALDE members.
The Greens-EFA group issued a press release describing the compromise as “unacceptable”, as it is based on the completion of the liberalisation of the postal service. The party takes the view that “the way in which this universal service is funded and its extension to all of the territories of the Union must be guaranteed” and calls for “non-social repression clauses”, in order to ensure that competition between the various operators is not achieved to the detriment of the employment and salary conditions of those employed in the sector. If these first two concerns are not satisfied, then delaying the removal of the reserved field “will resolve nothing”, in the view of the Greens, who went on to question the legal weight of the expression “member states with difficult topography”.
A provisional reciprocity clause, which was brought into the package of compromise amendments, would prevent a historic postal operator in charge of a reserved area in one member state from taking on markets in another country of the EU which is already open to competition for the handling of mail weighing less than 50 g. This clause is “highly controversial”, according to an EP expert close to the dossier: “the Council sees this as something absolutely unacceptable and the Commission is not that keen on it either”. This clause must be brought closer to the creation of geographical sections to be brought in by the future regulation on local passenger transport, which bans local transport authorities from moving into markets beyond the territory on which they operate (see EUROPE 9208). For postal services, the difference in size lies in the possible application of the reciprocity clause at national level. This solution “does not seem very 'internal market'”, one expert has observed.
The package of compromise amendments provides for: - maintaining the universal postal service (UPS) as it exists in European legislation; - the opening-up of the last area which can be reserved for a public operator, which is the handling of mail weighing less than 50 g, no later than 1 January 2011; - the possibility of an additional two-year postponement for “member states which joined after the entry into force of directive 2002/39/EC” (early 2003) and those with “difficult topography, in particular a large number of islands”; - the introduction of a reciprocity clause; - the possibility of paying for public service obligations out of a compensation fund paid for by service providers and/or users; - the notification to the Commission by the member states by 1 January 2010 of their national funding plans for the universal postal service, with these plans specifying the funding mechanism planned, and the sharing of net costs for public service obligations between the service providers and/or users; - the provision by the Commission of guidelines on the calculation of the net cost of public service obligations; - the clarification of the authorisation procedure for postal operators. (mb)