EU probe into Royal Mail funding

The European Commission has launched an in-depth investigation under the EC Treaty’s rules on state aid into a series of funding measures taken by the United Kingdom in favour of Royal Mail, the UK's principal supplier of postal services. The investigation follows complaints from Royal Mail's competitors in the newly liberalised UK postal market. The Commission will be examining the terms of each of the funding measures to determine whether they constitute state subsidies, or whether they meet 'market investor' conditions. The opening of an in-depth investigation gives interested parties the possibility to comment on the proposed measures but it does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation. Furthermore, the measures subject to this investigation do not concern the subsidies given to maintain the network of post offices.

European Commission: Press Release: IP/07/228: State aid: Commission launches in-depth investigation of some aspects of the UK's funding of Royal Mail http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/226&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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