Brussels, 25/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - Commissioners McCreevy and Kroes, responsible for the internal market and for competition respectively, have made it clear: they will not tolerate any undue protection by member states of their incumbent postal operators in the transposition of directive 2008/6/EC which completes the liberalisation of the postal sector (see EUROPE 9592). “Paying lip service to free markets and introducing protectionism through the back door is not acceptable. I find it particularly unacceptable that member states would try to hide protectionism behind arguments they justify by the general interest. If all member states were to copy this approach then postal markets would become more closed instead of more open. I cannot accept that,” warned Charlie McCreevy at a conference in Brussels on postal services on Tuesday 24 June. He said that he would use all the means at his disposal to ensure a competitive and sustainable postal market. Neelie Kroes said she would make sure competition rules were complied with, and she referred to the infringement procedure opened last week against Slovakia (see EUROPE 9686). In a half-veiled reference to the minimum hourly wage imposed by the German government when its market was definitively liberalised at the start of January, she said it was misplaced to use collective agreements to pursue objectives other than respect for working conditions. It was “totally unacceptable” to introduce protectionism by the back door, she too stressed.
Greek Transport and Communications Minister Kostas Hatzidakis pointed out that, during the transposition phase, member states had to appoint a universal postal service (UPS) provider, calculate the net cost of the UPS and decide on how it was to be financed. His Portuguese counterpart Mário Lino opposed the creation of a European authority to monitor developments in the postal sector. “The postal committee could very well monitor the implementation of the directive,” he felt. European Parliament rapporteur Markus Ferber (EPP-ED, Germany) praised the compromise reached. Even though a further period of grace had been granted to 11 member states which will open up their markets in 2013 instead of 2011, “it is clear that the final objective is still there: there will be liberalisation in all member states,” he said.
The representative of French group La Poste said that the EU was opening up its postal market when those of a number of trading partners (Canada, China, the United States) remained resolutely closed. A trade unionist from UNI-Europa said he was “very concerned” at Commission statements that measures to combat social dumping could constitute an infringement of the rules of what was being set up. “Everyone speaks about the fantastic opportunities” that come from opening up the postal market, yet the British experience has shown that “there is no innovation in the United Kingdom,” lamented a representative of a British telecommunications sector union.
The incumbent postal operators in 11 member states (Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia) have given their backing to full and balanced opening of the postal market in line with arrangements in directive 2008/6/EC. “The two key principles … are, first and foremost, the creation of mechanisms able to ensure the financing of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) all over the EU territory under FMO conditions, and the establishment of a true level playing field in all respects, including social conditions. In this perspective, the member states have the responsibility to endure balanced national regulatory frameworks that take into account the two mentioned principles,” they say in a press release. (M.B./transl.rt)