Brussels, 03/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - There have been mixed reactions to the political agreement on concluding the internal market in postal services reached by the member states at the Telecoms Council on 1 October (see EUROPE 9513). According to the European Parliament rapporteur on the subject, Markus Ferber (EPP-ED, Germany), the final decision on opening up national postal markets to competition is effectively a done deal because the Council has endorsed much of the EP's opinion in first reading (see EUROPE 9466). He said postal service monopolies would end in 2011 leaving only technical problems to be resolved in order for final agreement to be reached between the EP and the Council, predicting in a press release that the directive would be fully adopted in the spring of next year. He added that the faster the directive was adopted, the faster consumers and service providers would be able to take advantage of greater competition and innovative products.
The agreement reached by the ministers incorporates most of the views voted upon by the EP in July, explained Christine de Veyrac (EPP-ED, France): yes to competition, which increases service quality, but managed competition.
The MEP said she was pleased to see that the Council had improved upon the European Parliament's text by forcing the European Commission, which had been dragging its feet, to publish an annex to the directive laying down guidelines on calculating the net cost of public service obligations. De Veyrac described this as undeniable progress, which should help remove the last doubts about the future of post delivery.
French Socialist Gilles Savary is unhappy with the outcome, slamming the way the French flood defences to ensure adequate funding of the public postal service which had just been breached by the Council's decision, and with the agreement of the French government. He said this abandonment left France open to a two-tier postal service, extremely competitive in urban zones and extremely subsidised in rural zones, along the lines of mobile phone networks.
The 'Free and Fair Post Initiative' (FFPI) representing express courier parcel delivery services and companies making huge use of postal services welcomed the Council's political agreement. 'The myth of the incompatibility between open markets and the guarantee of a universal service has finally been refuted,' commented FFPI President Philippe Bodson in a press release. 'We are relieved that the politicians have finally agreed to fix dates for full market opening. However, we hope this does not mean that the other advantages provided in the Commission's draft directive have been watered down by political considerations', commented Per Mortensen on behalf of the Postal Users Group, PUG, whose members include the European direct marketing federation FEDMA.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is not happy with the outcome of the Telecoms Council. It explains that this new liberalisation of an industry shows that the Commission does not have any overview of the need for universal services, and that measures should be taken ahead of any decisions on whether to liberalise vital industries like the postal services, in order to preserve social and economic cohesion in the EU. ETUC believes that full liberalisation of the postal market in 2011 has come without any clear indication on how postal services are to be funded in the countryside, mountainous areas and islands. Mentioning the draft framework EU legislation to provide legal security to services of general interest, ETUC points out that the Commission has not yet produced any concrete proposals in this direction, but keeps coming up with proposals to liberalise different industries. (mb)