Tag: Latvijas Pasts

European postal operators take stock of Parliament’s improvements

Posted by | Jul 11, 2007 | |

12 European postal operators take stock of the European Parliament’s improvements brought to the proposal for a third postal directive.

The European Parliament has adopted, with a broad majority, amendments bringing significant changes to the initial proposal of the Commission.

Taking into consideration the great uncertainty of universal service financing and the risks of social dumping, the European Parliament has proposed substantial improvements on these two points and asks for the postponement of the date of realisation of the Internal Market in order to cope with them. The repeated reference to the economic role of universal postal services as well as to their contribution to the territorial and social cohesion is to be welcomed. It recalls one of the original objectives of the Community postal policy, thus balancing the liberalisation process.

However, the postal operators from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland and Slovakia want to stress that the postponement alone does not address the many legal, economic and technical questions which remain as acute as ever.

It is therefore extremely important to deepen the discussions on those points.

As a consequence, the signatories call the Council to follow the cautious approach adopted by the European Parliament and to enrich the directive proposal by addressing the remaining issues in order to properly manage the next liberalisation steps.

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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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Ltvijas Pasts Postal Co must be sold off

Posted by | Jan 31, 2007 | |

The government should sell off Latvian postal operator Latvijas Pasts (LP), the company’s board chairman believes.
“I have always said — if someone approaches the government with a proposal to buy LP now, when its value is close to the maximum, then this should be done as follows — that’s how much it costs, let’s arrange an auction and sell it to the bidder who offers the highest price,” says the company’s board chairman Gints Skodovs in an interview published in the newspaper Dienas Bizness (DB).
Speaking about potential buyers, he told the newspaper that the Finnish Post is not interested in buying LP. “It is easier and cheaper to invest dozens of millions and create the system from a scratch. If they buy our company, they would receive a whole lot of problems they would have to solve. The main of them is that LP has a thousand of post-offices, two thirds of which are loss-making. LP employs nearly 8,000 people. Why would anyone need to get all these problems?” he said.
Skodovs also reminds in the interview that the government is against the privatization of LP. “We have done the evaluation of LP, which shows that the rise in the company’s value has grown by 18 million lats (EUR 25.61 mln) over the past three years (the value of the company stands at about 54 mln lats – DB). And by 2009, when the monopoly is over, we can make it even more valuable, which will continue to have an effect on the company’s value”, the head of the company said.

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Postal Service Rates to Grow in Latvia Next Year

Posted by | Nov 2, 2005 | |

The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission council on Wednesday approved the plan by the national postal company Latvijas Pasts to raise the charges for mailing letters and other postal services in Latvia as of next year, said the regulator.

According to the new rates, the price for mailing a letter in Latvia will be raised to 22 santims (EUR 0.31) next year from the current price of 15 santims. The rates for letters to be sent abroad as well as banderoles and parcels to addresses both in Latvia and abroad will also increase.

Latvijas Pasts director general Gints Skodovs said that the postal company wanted to raise the rates in view of the continuously increasing prices in Latvia, which pushed up also costs, in particularly the fuel costs.

He said that the current rates for postal services in Latvia had been introduced back in 1999. If Latvijas pasts failed to raise its rates, the company won’t be able to grow and would have to suspend a number of projects which would result in a four million lats loss next year.

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Latvian Regulator approves new postal tariffs

Posted by | Nov 2, 2005 | |

The Public Services Regulatory Commission’s council today approved new postal tariffs for the “Latvijas Pasts” (LP) company, as Inese Krumina, acting head of the company’s public relations department, told LETA. The new tariffs will come into force January 1 next year.

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