EUROPE IN DEADLOCK ON POSTAL LIBERALISATION
The long-standing dispute over the future of Europe's postal markets reaches a climax tomorrow at a council of EU telecommunications ministers in Luxembourg.
EU leaders meeting in Lisbon in March 2000 all agreed to liberalise their markets in a bid to make the European economy more dynamic and competitive.
Belgium, which currently holds the EU presidency, is trying to cobble together a deal which would open 20 per cent of the postal markets to competition in 2006, compared to the present 3 per cent. In Ireland's case An Post has estimated the market opening would amount to 45 per cent.
The Belgian presidency compromise would progressively reduce the monopoly of public postal providers on letter mail, from 350g to 150g in 2003 and to 50g in 2006, with full liberalisation in 2009.
National positions are polarised, especially on the deadline for total liberalisation. In the pro-liberalising camp are Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Britain. Most of these countries have already opened their markets beyond the minimum set by the 1997 EU Postal Services Directive.
The anti-liberalisation bloc is led by France and supported by Greece, Italy and Portugal, which believe that forced liberalisation will have a negative social impact. Ireland's position is difficult to pin down.
Public enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke will face a backlash if liberalisation results in the closure of rural post offices, as many predict. An Post employs 4,000 delivery staff in its 1,900 post offices and derives almost two-thirds of its turnover from letter post.
Denmark and Britain propose to break the deadlock by leaving the matter of the final date up to the EU Commission. If the Commission decides that full liberalisation by 2009 would have a detrimental effect on the `universal service' (five-day-a-week service to all areas), it could block it. If it decided otherwise, the 2009 deadline would remain.
Some member states, including Ireland, are wary of this solution, largely because the EU Commissioner responsible for postal services, Frits Bolkestein, is an unabashed liberaliser. Bolkestein, a straight-talking Dutchman, has already ruffled more than a few feathers with his unwillingness to countenance compromise.
Ireland, backed by Greece, Spain, Luxembourg and Portugal, is also seeking an exemption from the rule that all outgoing cross-border mail be subject to competition from 2003. This sector accounts for 17 per cent of An Post's turnover, a higher proportion than in other member states.
Another bone of contention is the liberalisation from 2003 of `special services', such as express mail, delivery on appointment and tracking and tracing. Spain, France, Greece and Italy insist this would stifle the evolution of their national postal providers.
Since the Commission launched its liberalisation plan in May last year, resistance has been unrelenting. The European Parliament, which has a joint say with the Council of Ministers on this issue, last December gave a resounding `no' to Bolkestein's proposals.
France, which held the EU presidency from July to December 2000, lobbied intensely to water down the proposal, but could not garner enough support from its EU partners. Pro-liberalisation Sweden — afraid of being accused of pursuing its own interests — did not use its presidency in the first half of this year to strike a favourable deal.
The Belgians have so far occupied a middle ground in the debate. If they cannot broker a compromise, many fear that Europe's postal markets will face uncertainty for yet another year. Copyright 2001 Sunday Business Post. Source: World Reporter (Trade Mark) – FT McCarthy.
