Britain accused of double standards over reform

FROM DAVID LISTER IN BRUSSELS

BRITAIN was last night accused of double standards over its publicly stated desire to speed up reforms to Europe’s internal market while failing to support plans for private companies to compete with the Royal Mail.
Frits Bolkestein, the European Union’s Internal Market Commissioner, chose a speech at the Mansion House in the City to question the Government’s commitment to reform across all EU markets.

“It cannot be the case that there is one rule for the UK and another for the rest of the EU. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” said Mr Bolkestein.

The Dutch Commissioner sought to contrast the Government’s reluctance to support the Commission’s proposal on postal liberalisation with repeated comments by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, about the need to accelerate reform of financial services and other EU markets.

Referring to a meeting of EU postal ministers to discuss the issue in December, Mr Bolkestein expressed disappointment at Britain’s failure to support a Brussels initiative designed to open a large part of the EU’s postal markets to outside competition. Instead, Britain sided with a more cautious plan aimed at taking the sting out of the Commission’s proposal.

He said: “When the Commission’s proposal for what amounted to not more than a partial opening of the postal markets was discussed in the Council of Ministers recently, the UK did little to support the Commission’s efforts to achieve progress on this important matter.

“Of course, other member states were also unwilling to move, but it was a disappointment to me not to find the UK taking the Commission’s side in this disucssion.”