Tag: Cyprus

Postal service given two-year extension to fix up its act

Posted by | Oct 4, 2007 | |

The Cyprus Postal Service could face EU fines reaching the millions if it doesn’t get its act together, Telecommunications Regulator Vasos Pyrgos has warned.

In its 2005 report, the Office of the Commissioner of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation (OCECPR) said that while there is sufficient competition in postal services, mainly due to express courier services, the government service has failed to meet requisite quality levels.

In 2004, the OCECPR fined the postal service GBP 10,000 for delays in delivering letters; in 2005 the fine was GBP 20,000, and in 2006 it reached GBP 50,000.

Officials claim that Cyprus has fallen short of EU delivery targets because it is the only country in the EU where the postal services are not permitted to take independent decisions to upgrade their department.

Brussels has given Cyprus and Malta a two-year extension (2013) to open up their postal services sectors, but Pyrgos said that drastic steps were needed if the Cyprus Postal Service was to become competitive by that deadline.

Lack of flexibility and poor efficiency are said to be the post’s chronic weaknesses, with some saying that key managerial and operational posts are left vacant.

Parliament has drafted a bill proposing to make the postal service a semi-governmental organization that will be able to run its own day-to-day affairs. But any sweeping changes to the regime are almost sure to provoke reaction from civil servants.

The Cyprus Postal Service still has a virtual monopoly on the market. As a state service, it is obliged to provide services to remote and hard-to-reach regions that may even be unprofitable to serve.

However, if it is able to prove that by providing service to hard-to-reach areas it runs a loss, then it will be eligible for reimbursement from a special fund.

Moreover, current regulations give the government service an edge over private couriers.

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European postal operators express caution on the liberalisation of the postal market.

Posted by | May 31, 2007 | |

As the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union are about to decide on a proposal of the European Commission to fully liberalise the European postal market in 2009, 12 postal operators, in charge of providing the universal service in their countries, express their support for the cautious approach followed in the ongoing debates.

The postal operators of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia observe with interest the caution that characterises the majority of debates in the EU Parliament on the issue of postal market liberalisation.

Over the past few months several signatory postal operators have highlighted the difficulty of identifying and implementing a financing mechanism that guarantees the continuity of the universal postal service in the event of full liberalisation of the market.

Faced with this problem, several debates in the EU Parliament called for caution and raised crucial issues such as viable financing mechanisms of the universal service, dangers of social dumping and the necessary conditions for a level playing field between market players. As a result, three European Parliamentary Committees as well the European Social and Economic Committee proposed new dates for the completion of the internal market for postal services, to be confirmed if appropriate. In the meantime, all efforts must be constructively spent to propose adequate solutions to the above mentioned points which are essential to make liberalisation possible.

The 12 signatory postal operators support a responsible approach and assert that the actual uncertainties must be addressed before the current system of financing of the universal postal service is put to an end.

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The European Mail Manifesto: growth, partnership and innovation in a changing industry

Posted by | Jan 12, 2007 | |

The Postal Users Group has issued a manifesto on the main interests of business users of postal services to encourage the European Commission to take the postal users needs into account when it is preparing its next proposals on postal services this year. PUG, an alliance of the major postal users representing 15 trade associations and businesses, points out in its manifesto that the postal services cover a very wide range of businesses and systems. The letter mail business of Europe´s postal operators represent about 1 million jobs and revenues of 47 billion euro; however, PUG shows that the wider sector accounts for an additional 4 million jobs and over 150 billion euro of revenues.

Contents (i)
List of figures (ii)
List of case studies (ii)
List of annexes (ii)
Signatories (iii)
Foreword (iv)
Author’s Foreword (v)
Executive summary (vi)
1. Introduction 1
2. The postal segment of the mail industry
3. The broader mailing industry 17
4. A shared vision for the future 25
5. Conclusion 33
Annex 36
Bibliography 38
P:LibraryPostalEuropean Mail Manifesto PUG 0706.pdf

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9 European Postal Service Providers Call for Caution in the 2009 Postal Service

Posted by | Jul 28, 2006 | |

Following the publication of the PWC study on the “Impact on Universal Service of the Full Market Accomplishment of the Postal Internal Market in 2009”, the postal operators of Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland and Spain, which account for over 50% of the Community population, express their concern about the study outcomes and plead the European Commission for a balanced approach when drawing up future postal legislation. At the beginning of this month of July, the European Commission published a study undertaken at its request by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) in order to assess, in each member State, the impact on the universal postal provision of a full liberalisation in 2009. As stated by the postal Directive 2002/39/EC, based on the conclusions of this study, the Commission shall submit by 31 December 2006 “a report to the European Parliament and the Council accompanied by a proposal confirming, if appropriate, the date of 2009 for the full accomplishment of the postal internal market or determining any other step in the light of the study’s conclusions”.

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