Labour two-faced on Post Office, claims Brussels

The European commission, attacked the government yesterday,
questioning its commitment to open up the postal sector to
competition and abolish the Post Office’s monopoly.

Frits Bolkestein, the EU commissioner for the internal market, in a
speech in London, claimed that the government said one thing in
public but did the opposite when it came to negotiating behind
closed doors.

The EC wants the Post Office and its European counterparts to lose
their monopoly in 2003 on the delivery of all letters weighing more
than 50 grams.

It has run into opposition from the European parliament and
countries such as Britain which favour a more gradual
liberalisation.

Mr Bolkestein, increasingly frustrated at the pace of progress,
yesterday cited a recent newspaper interview in which Gordon Brown
stated that postal services were an area where the EU should ‘keep
up pressure for reform’.

‘But, 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 offered little support,’ the
Dutchman told an audience at Mansion House last night. ‘It was a
disappointment to me not to find the UK taking the commission’s
side.’

In a warning to the government not to go its own way on the issue
when Graham Corbett, chairman of the UK Postal Services Commission,
delivers his recommendations for reform this summer, Mr Bolkestein
demanded EU-wide rules for the sector.

‘I am aware of the importance the UK government attaches to the
views of Mr Corbett, who is due to report shortly on the issue of
liberalisation of postal services. I am interested in what Mr
Corbett has to say but there cannot be one rule for the UK and
another for the rest of the EU.’

In private, EU officials claim that Tony Blair is reluctant to act
on the matter before the general election for fear of alienating the
postal unions. The unions say that the EC’s proposals would result
in up to 50,000 job losses while the Post Office has warned that it
would lose pounds 400m a year in revenues and would no longer be
able to provide a nationwide service.

A spokesman last night argued that the government was still
committed to liberalisation but ‘it has to take into account the
different circumstances in different countries’.
Copyright 2001 The Guardian.
Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) – FT McCarthy.
THE GUARDIAN, 06th February 2001