Italy: Change of Position on Post Liberalization?
The new Italian government under Silvio Berlusconi may help speed the long-stalled liberalization of European postal services by adding Italy to the pro-liberalization bloc led by Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands. Ending domestic monopolies on mail deliveries up to a weight of 200 grams for standard letters and 50 grams for bulk mail is crucial to making direct mail more affordable and allowing more direct marketers to launch Pan-European campaigns.” Weyr projects that a power shift could occur saying, “Italy has been part of the ‘Southern bloc’ that includes Greece and Portugal and has supported adamant French opposition to liberalization. The French post office is a major employer, and the introduction of commercial methodologies would lead inevitably to massive cuts in its bloated bureaucracy and thus would add to France’s unemployment problems. But Berlusconi holds free-market economic views, and Italy’s post is improving rapidly. Italy’s possible defection would weaken the pro-monopoly bloc, which is currently anchored by a French-British alliance. That could weaken during British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s second term.
