Dutch Parliament delays decision on mail market deregulation

The Dutch parliament Thursday decided to postpone its decision on the deregulation of the Dutch mail market until next week, but during its debate on the topic it became clear that a large majority will support the plan to liberalize the market as from Jan. 1, 2008.

The parliament discussed Wednesday and Thursday a proposal by Frank Heemskerk, Secretary of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, to liberalize the Dutch mail market, which until now is dominated by TNT NV. A large majority seems willing to support the plan, although members of the parliament asked for a bit more time to come to a final decision.

There were several amendments on the proposal and they have to be discussed first. TNT, which has a monopoly in The Netherlands on mail services for all letters up to 50 grams, is against an opening of the Dutch market from the beginning of 2008 because it fears that other European countries will likely wait longer to do so.

TNT’s Chief Executive Peter Bakker told Dow Jones that he wants “a level playing field across Europe, to guarantee a fair competition.” Heemskerk’s proposal to liberalize the Dutch mail market has one important condition: if Germany decides not to open its mail market Jan. 1, 2008, then The Netherlands also will hold off from doing so.

The German parliament has already agreed on deregulation of its domestic postal market. Various German government officials, however, have expressed doubts whether the country should pursue the plans, because the French government has said it doesn’t want to open up its postal market before 2012.

There is no fixed date by which E.U. member states need to have fully deregulated their postal markets. E.U. Internal Market and Services commissioner Charlie McGreevy proposed in October last year to open up the entire European Union market by Jan. 1, 2009, but this was met with protests from many member states and a formal decision has yet to be made.

Belgium, France, Italy and Spain have all said they require clarity on how comprehensive nationwide postal delivery services can be guaranteed. E.U. countries that already have opened up their postal markets include the U.K., Finland and Sweden. But there are high barriers to entry, such as a Value Added Tax exception for Royal Mail in the U.K. that doesn’t apply to other companies in the country.