FEDMA Discusses French National Regulatory Authority
The Postal Affairs Committee of the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing Association (FEDMA) held a meeting on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 at La Poste’s head offices in Paris. Mr Guillaume Lacroix, in charge of the Postal Services Unit of the DG of Industry, Information Technology and Post, of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry informed the participants about the details of the draft law to implement the second Postal Directive which is to be examined by the French Assembly soon (but very likely only in the autumn). One of the main aims of the French draft law is to establish an independent National Regulatory Authority (NRA) on Post in France. Ms Catherine Gallet-Rybak was also present at the meeting. She has been appointed to work on the regulation of Postal Services in the ART (the Telecoms National Regulatory Authority), until the new Postal NRA is established in 2005 at the earliest. There was then an interesting debate with Mr Lacroix on the situation in France, for example, it is yet to be determined whether the postal sector in France will be liberalized by 2007 (as might be the case for some other MS). Other issues which were discussed were consolidation, the Universal Service Obligation (USO), access and licensing. Further items on the agenda were the latest developments on issues such as the implementation of the Postal Directives in the 25 EU MS, VAT on Postal Services, recycling and “ecotax” rules in the various EU MS, the UPU, PUG and views on liberalization and the ACTIN project.
