EU to take next step in postal reform, national monopolies must cease by 2009

The European Commission will announce the next step in its liberalisation of Europe’s postal services tomorrow, with deliveries of letters under 50 grams open to competition by 2009, said Oliver Drewes, spokesman for EU internal markets commissioner Charlie McCreevy.

The commission will debate the proposals at its weekly meeting tomorrow before announcing plans to free up the market for letters in Europe, following on from its 2002 directive on parcels and letters over 50 grams.

Currently, historical operators may still hold national monopolies on letters weighing less than 50 grams in Europe.

‘It’s not really about member states yet,’ said Drewes, when asked which countries would be most likely to be on the receiving end of legal action for failure to transpose the directive into national law.

However, according to a report in Belgian daily La Libre Belgique, which says it has seen the proposals, the UK, the Netherlands, Scandinavian countries and Germany have been the most successful in terms of ending the monopoly of traditional postal services providers and introducing competition.

The Belgian and French post offices are widely expected to be announced as the worst offenders in liberalising markets.

The commission has said that its aim is to ‘ensure, through an appropriate regulatory framework, that efficient, reliable and good-quality postal services are available throughout the European Union to all its citizens at affordable prices’.

It also ensures that all consumers receive a basic ‘universal service’ which means that citizens and businesses located in rural areas should ‘enjoy broadly the same or at least comparable access to that available to their urban counterparts’.