Tag: European Commission

French banks claim Banque Postale unfair

Posted by | Dec 2, 2005 | |

The creation of a state-owned postal bank in France moved a step closer yesterday despite a hostile reception from the country’s bigg-est listed banks, which filed a complaint to the European Commission claiming unfair competition.

La Banque Postale, a subsidiary of the national post office, is due to be created on January 1, after winning approval from the French regulator on Wednesday night. With 28m clients, Euros 4.3bn (Dollars 5bn) of revenues, and 17,000 retail outlets, it will increase fierce competition in French banking.

Within minutes of the regulator giving its green light, four of France’s biggest banks, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, Banque Populaire and Credit Agricole, lodged an appeal to the Brussels competition authority, asking it to block the postal bank’s creation.

The Commission said yesterday it would announce before Christmas whether it would approve the creation of La Banque Postale or open an inquiry.

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EC hints that it can deliver for An Post

Posted by | Apr 5, 2005 | |

The European Commission has given a big hint it would approve any special State aid requested by the Government to support loss-making An Post. The signal from Brussels does not follow any request from the Government, but comes in response to a question from an Opposition MEP. The Commission’s positive reaction will strengthen union demands for greater Government support for the loss-making postal service. Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell was told by the Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, that she would be sympathetic to any request from Ireland for assistance to help offset the cost of a full national delivery service.

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European Commission takes a closer look at the Polish Post

Posted by | Feb 18, 2005 | |

The European Commission has a problem with Poczta Polska – it wonders whether the special privileges that the Postal Service enjoys are not a disguised form of state aid. Poczta Polska is a public utility enterprise, founded on a legal basis – this special legal status gives its a privileged position over potential competitors. Entities created by force of law are not subject to bankruptcy legislation – put simply, the Polish Post cannot go bankrupt. If it wants to obtain credit from a bank, such credit would be guaranteed by the state. This status was OK for many years, and the EC focused on it only after it received letters from the Polish government, asking it to approve aid programs for the Postal Service. The Commission has not decided yet if the situation of the Polish Post raises any concerns about fairness of competition -currently the Postal Service does not obtain any benefits from its status.

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Dutch Post to opt back in to EU cross-border deal?

Posted by | Feb 12, 2005 | |

Dutch postal operator TPG Post will join new talks on cross-border mail services, six years after it opted out of a European price agreement for delivering mail to and from other EU countries. Jan Sertons, distribution and international relations manager at TPG Post, said the company wanted to reach a “customer- and market-orientated solution” when the current REIMS agreement runs out at the end of 2006. He told a Brussels legal conference on February 10 that staying out of REIMS meant TPG Post had won lower tariffs and better quality of service.

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