Bangemann under fire over ‘kamikaze’ post liberalisation

Date: 11/03/1999

By Peter Chapman

INDUSTRY Commissioner Martin Bange-mann is coming under intense pressure to make compromises as he battles to win colleagues' support for his plans to liberalise the postal sector.

British Socialist MEP Brian Simpson claims the Commissioner is behaving like a "kamikaze pilot" in his efforts to liberalise direct and cross-border mail and all letters weighing more than 50 grammes by 2003, and set a definitive date for the full liberalisation of the sector.

But as Bangemann prepares to unveil his proposed timetable for opening up the sector to more competition later this month, other Commissioners' aides are warning that there is little chance of this being accepted by the College.

They say that Yves-Thibault de Silguy and Edith Cresson, Pádraig Flynn, Monica Wulf-Mathies, João de Deus Pinheiro and Neil Kinnock are all opposed to fast-track liberalisation. Competition chief Karel van Miert, Franz Fischler and Erkki Liikanen are in the 'compromise camp', favouring a steadier approach than Bangemann, while others, including Marcelino Oreja, Manuel Marin and Commission President Jacques Santer, are undecided.

Sources predict that Bangemann will have to settle for partial liberalisation in 2003, with no definitive date for full market opening.

In practice, this is likely to mean that the Commission will propose liberalising cross-border and direct mail and lowering the reserved letters weight limit from 350 grammes to around 150-175 grammes in 2003.

"The way out of this would be that there is going to be a compromise where you go with a first step in 2003, but where you would not set a final date," said one. "That is the logical compromise - but it is tough to predict."

Many within the Commission argue that Bangemann would be unwise to push ahead with anything more ambitious - even if he wins a small majority among the College of Commissioners - given that the European Parliament has signalled its total opposition to his plans in the past.

"If he only got a simple majority, I cannot imagine it would be sensible to do something against Parliament's wishes in a very sensitive dossier," said one official.

Bangemann's spokesman confirmed this week that the Commissioner was likely to push for a partial opening of postal markets in 2003, and for a definitive date for full liberalisation to be set, possibly, five years later. He said Bangemann would try to win over sceptics by offering some member states the right to delay liberalisation.

Failure to persuade fellow Commissioners to endorse his call for a deadline for full liberalisation would be a blow for the free market-loving German as he prepares to leave the institution at the end of this year. Along with Competition Commissioner Karel van Miert, Bangemann was responsible for the successful launch of the EU's 1998 telecoms liberalisation package.

It would also be a massive disappointment to the private sector courier firms which are ready and waiting to step into newly opened markets.

Anton van der Lande, secretary-general of the European Express Organisation, said lowering the weight bands for letters protected by monopoly from 350 grammes to 100 or 150 grammes would have little impact as most letters are below 100 grammes.

Van Der Lande said that if a final deadline was not set, the Commission would have to toughen up its use of EU rules to bring post offices to task for anti-competitive behaviour. He argues that tough action is needed to stop the relentless efforts of post offices across the EU to buy up courier firms with monopoly profits from letter businesses.