Slovakia faces antitrust proceedings
European antitrust regulators are to bring formal proceedings against Slovakia, accusing the country of re-monopolising part of its postal service.
The move follows unsuccessful talks between Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner, and Lubomir Vazny, the Slovak transport, post and telecoms minister, which ended late on Friday, and could involve Brussels using some of its strongest powers against the central European country.
“Commissioner Kroes has no choice but to pursue the formal antitrust procedure against Slovakia,” said officials.
The problem centres on so-called “hybrid mail services”. These are used mainly by banks, insurance companies, utilities and the like, and involve the sender transferring letters or communications to a third party operator, who prints and delivers the mail. Such services are typically used for large quantities of standardised post, such as invoices.
Brussels became concerned about the situation in Slovakia, after a law change there came into effect in February and effectively extended the monopoly held by Slovenska Posta to these services.
The Commission claimed that these services had previously been open to competition, and that several private companies had entered the market. Their viability, it said, was now at risk. Subsequent talks with Slovak officials, most recently on Friday, have failed to resolve the problem.
Now the Commission is threatening to deploy rarely-used but powerful procedures against the EU member state. If the decision sought by Mrs Kroes is adopted, it would find that Slovakia has infringed Treaty rules by attempting to re-monopolise the delivery of hybrid mail services.
This decision would be directly binding on the government there, and confirm that the market for hybrid mail is open to competition.
The EU has fought a long battle to persuade and eventually force member states to open their postal services to competition – but already there are some concerns in Brussels that countries are backsliding.
