Deutsche Post chief backs end to monopolies
The head of Europe’s largest postal group on Tuesday welcomed an ambitious drive to throw open the region’s Euro90bn (USD113bn, GBP61bn) market for postal services to full competition by 2009, but warned that a majority of governments was opposed to the plan.
Klaus Zumwinkel, the chief executive of Deutsche Post, was speaking as the European Commission put the finishing touches on a landmark proposal for postal reform that will be presented in Brussels on Wednesday. The plan is expected to face criticism from France and other countries, which want to water down the draft law and ensure that incumbent mail operators are compensated for the loss of their monopoly.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Zumwinkel rejected such moves. “We are in favour of competition in the postal market,” he said. “But we have to liberalise the European markets in unison. It cannot be that Germany opens its market and others don’t.”
The Commission’s draft law calls for an end to the last postal monopolies by 2009, paving the way for unfettered competition in the large and lucrative market for delivering mail weighing less than 50 grammes. However, the proposal also gives governments significant scope to oblige postal groups to continue servicing remote and thinly populated areas where it is hard to turn a profit.
Mr Zumwinkel described the lack of detailed provisions on this so-called universal service obligation as the “Achilles heel” of the Commission proposal. He said universal service obligations should be limited to individual consumers and not be extended to businesses which were able to secure postal services without government intervention.
The Deutsche Post head also said the Commission and its supporters would have a “hard job” to win the backing of member states and the European parliament for the proposal. “I see the problem that, according to what has been said officially and unofficially, only five member states are in favour of liberalisation [Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland]. The others are against. If there was a vote in the council of ministers today, there would not be a majority for a liberalisation by 2009.”
The Commission’s liberalisation drive on Tuesday also attracted the support of Germany’s powerful BDI industry federation. Jürgen Thumann, the BDI president, said he was keen for the EU to stick by the 2009 target date for full competition.
However, he said the Commission proposal would give too much leeway to member states keen to provide financial help to postal groups affected by the universal services obligation.
