German government may extend Deutsche Post monopoly as EU liberalization lags
German economy minister Michael Glos is prepared to extend Deutsche Post World Net AG’s letter mail monopoly beyond the beginning of next year as it becomes apparent that a Europe-wide market liberalization likely won’t come before 2011, Handelsblatt reported, citing German government sources.
And European finance ministers are unlikely to agree at their upcoming meeting on a specific date on which they will open up the market for letter mail in their countries, the newspaper said, citing unidentified diplomatic sources in Brussels.
German media has said the liberalization of Germany’s mail market, which was initially planned for Jan 1, 2008, may be delayed if Germany cannot convince the other EU member states to open their markets as well.
Deutsche Post’s virtual monopoly on letter delivery for letters up to 50 grams is earmarked to expire at the start of 2008, with the EU seeking a continent-wide liberalisation of the market in 2009.
