Monopolists attack postal liberalisation

The EU’s self-imposed deadline of 2009 for liberalisation of the €90 billion-a-year postal market could be postponed by three years to 2012.

Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy’s proposals to meet the deadline have run into an intensive lobbying campaign spearheaded by France, Belgium and Luxembourg’s monopoly operators.

The Commission published in October proposals for a third postal services directive that would end by 2009 the remaining monopoly of national postal services on letters weighing less than 50 grams.

France, Belgium and Luxembourg have stepped up their opposition ahead of a vote by the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee and a meeting of telecoms ministers next month (5 and 7-8 June respectively). Their campaign for further delays to liberalisation has received support among MEPs, as well as backing from operators in Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Malta and Slovakia.

German centre-right MEP Markus Ferber, who is preparing a report on postal liberalisation for the transport committee, said: "The proposal of the Commission is a serious one and was the only way of pushing forward the dossier on liberalisation of postal services. But, as we are learning now in Parliament and Council, there’s only a minority in favour."

Ferber, who is currently talking to member states in an attempt to rally support for the 2009 deadline, is convinced that Belgium, France and Luxembourg will not soften their opposition to McCreevy’s proposal.

The battle to break the stranglehold of powerful national champions has been fought for nearly 20 years. The Commission published a white paper on postal services in 1988 but it was not until 1997 that a law set rules on users’ rights to a universal service, required the designation of a national regulator and set the legal monopoly at 350g. A second directive in 2002 opened the market up further and from 2006 reduced the monopoly to mail weighing less than 50g.

That law set 1 January 2009 as a target date for completing the single market for postal services, but the deadline had to be confirmed by joint decision of Parliament and the Council. The Commission was to present a proposal based on an assessment for each member state of the impact on universal service of further opening up the market.

McCreevy has described postal liberalisation as a ‘litmus test’ for member states’ commitment to open markets. "The problem is that this issue is an issue in all member states," said his spokesman, Oliver Drewes. "Everyone has his own little debate. In Hungary, for example, they need a post office for every 600 inhabitants. It’s the law."

The delay would be a major disappointment for the Free and Fair Post Initiative, an organisation representing companies that are pushing to compete with national monopoly services. "Everyone has had time to prepare," said Secretary-General Valeria Fagone. "The Commission has given lots of options." The opponents of liberalisation, she added, "did pretty well in spreading messages inspired by fear".

Established national champions argue that liberalisation should be put on hold until a solution for financing universal service obligations, covering issues such as lower limits for deliveries per week, is found. McCreevy’s proposal to make new market entrants contribute to a fund compensating operators for meeting universal obligations, however, has failed to appease critics.

Joost Vantomme, director of regulatory affairs at Belgium’s La Poste, who has also been lobbying for a compromise deadline, said that a compensation fund established four years ago in Italy had proven a failure. "We are opposed to any liberalisation before the financing of universal obligations," he said. "You’re going to liberalise the market at a time when the volumes are not growing and where the substitution of physical mail to other media is accelerating."

Ferber is working to achieve a compromise before the end of the month. More than 400 amendments covering issues such as service obligations, guarantees for workers and national opt-outs have been proposed so far by the six Parliamentary committees working on the dossier.

The EU’s self-imposed deadline of 2009 for liberalisation of the €90 billion-a-year postal market could be postponed by three years to 2012.