By Chris Jones - 11th December 2006
France led the opposition to European commission plans to liberalise EU postal services by 2009 at a meeting of EU ministers on Monday.
Paris has openly criticised the commission’s plans, put forward by internal market chief Charlie McCreevy in October, in particular the proposal to change the way basic postal services are provided.
In France, as in many other countries, these so-called universal services are currently carried out by a single operator, and are funded by ‘reserving’ part of the market for that company.
Paris is concerned that the commission’s proposals to scrap reserved markets and to fund the universal service through different means such as compensation packages, state aid or public tenders would lead to an increased financial burden on national governments.
“We remain concerned about the proposals put forward by the commission for funding the universal service, which need to be more properly investigated,” the French delegation said in the council meeting.
“We will insist on keeping the reserved area if we are satisfied that the universal service can be properly funded at the same high quality of service.”
But McCreevy said he was not concerned by the sabre-rattling from Paris.
“These proposals have been 15 years in the making, and should come as a surprise to nobody,” he said.
“They do not need any further study – we have been looking at them since the early 1990s and we have plenty of examples of how liberalisation works from the countries that have already opened up their markets.”
“I’ve been in politics long enough to know that calls for further study are usually a means of delaying implementation of new rules.”
But the Irish commissioner said he recognised how “sensitive” an issue postal services were in many countries, and stressed that Monday’s meeting was simply the first exchange of views on the matter.
“I am not surprised by today’s reaction, but it is important to stress that everyone agrees that we need to reform EU postal services, and quickly.”
And he dismissed an implied “threat” from France that it would not be prepared to negotiate any changes to postal services that set an absolute deadline of 2009, as the commission did in its proposal.
Paris said that the January 2009 deadline should be seen as “indicative” and not definitive, setting this and the issue of universal service as its “entry conditions” for negotiations.
Britain took the opposite position to France, highlighting the benefits of its already-liberalised postal sector.
Since the market was fully opened to competition in January, just four per cent of the postal market has been taken by competitors to incumbent operator, the Royal Mail.
“But that four per cent has been enough to raise the game of the Royal Mail, leading to an improvement in both efficiency and profitability,” said Britain’s junior trade minister Margaret Hodge.
Germany, which takes over the EU presidency from Finland in three weeks, will now begin work on the commission’s proposals, with the hope of reaching a political agreement on the dossier at the next ministerial meeting in June.
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