Brussels, 09/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 8 January 2009, the European Commission presented a report on implementation of the post directive, 97/67/EC, in 2006-2008. It notes that the development of competition, although perceptible, is slower than expected since most of the postal market is still reserved for the incumbent post offices. The reduction from 1 January 2006 onwards of the reserved processing of post weighing up to 50 grammes only opened up a further 7% of the market. In 2006-8, the market shares of private operators grew slightly. End to end competition was strongest in the
Netherlands (14% of market share), Germany (10%) and Sweden (9%), while the market share of private operators are less than 2% in many other member states. In the United Kingdom, which fully liberalised its postal market in 2006, competition has developed mainly upstream, where private operators hold nearly 20% of the market.
The liberalisation moves of the member states most in favour of opening up the market has had a mixed result, according to the European Commission. Germany is by far the biggest national postal market. It opened the market in January 2008 but introduced a minimum pay rate for postal workers at the same time. Dutch company TNT believes that the minimum pay rate, negotiated between the public operator Deutsche Post and the Verdi trade union and then endorsed by the German government, was introduced to protect the incumbent, and has appealed to the Commission against Germany. On two occasions, German courts have ruled against the government but the government has announced that it will be lodging a final appeal. In the Netherlands, the government has decided to postpone liberalisation of the Dutch post market indefinitely on the grounds of the working conditions at the Dutch incumbent's main competitors and the introduction of minimum pay for German post workers. This step was immediately criticised by Deutsche Post, which has appealed against it.
Adopted in January 2008, the 3rd post directive (2008/6/EC) scraps the reserved post requirement as from 1 January 2011 at the latest, and grants a further two years to 11 member states (see EUROPE 9592). The European Commission says the new directive is a decisive step because it includes the scrapping of the last legal monopolies. In the meantime, the road to introduction of the internal postal market remains long and winding. The Commission has again warned against the temptation of certain member states wanting to hold back the opening up of their national market to competition by introducing strategic and legal obstacles (see EUROPE 9690 and 9626). It mentions, for example, the excessive criteria imposed by some member states when awarding licences to private operators. In Finland, for example, a country where post liberalisation started back in the 1990s, any operator applying for a licence to participate in the universal service post system must pay a tax of between 5% and 20% of its annual turnover. This has resulted in competition existing on paper but not in practice. The Commission is reported to disapprove of this and may launch infringement proceedings. The Commission warns that refusing access to essential elements of post infrastructure would be a barrier to the entry of potential competitors. This applies to Austria and Poland, which impose excessive restrictions on the access of private operators to post services. The Commission has identified strategic obstacles to market opening, arising from the signing of excusive contracts between the incumbent and its clients, price discrimination or connected product sales.
VAT. Another area where solutions still have to be found is exemption from value added tax (VAT) granted to public postal operators (see EUROPE 9576). The introduction of a common postal market in the EU by 2013 means that there must be equal treatment for tax purposes. In 2003, the European Commission suggested that VAT should apply to all postal services but negotiations are in deadlock at Council level, where unanimous decision-making is required for tax issues. Germany, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom oppose equality of tax treatment. The Czech Presidency is not planning to act in this field but the Swedish Presidency (in the second half of 2009) may decide to look at the issue, suggests an expert. Sweden, Germany and the United Kingdom are the subject of infringement proceedings over VAT exemption for postal services (see EUROPE 9475).
Favouring rapid liberalisation of the postal market, the Free and Fair Post Initiative, representing big users of postal services and courier companies, has published a 2008 survey of post charges.
In ten member states (Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, the
United Kingdom and Slovenia) prices have gone up. The highest price rises have been observed in Denmark and Italy. (M.B./transl.fl)