Postcomm supports European Commission consultation on the postal sector
10 November 2005
Ahead of its 2006 proposal, the European Commission has launched a public consultation on the postal sector. The consultation underlines the Commission's commitment to take account of the changing needs of consumers and businesses, and seeks stakeholder views on the potential social and economic impacts of any further reform, including how the universal postal service could best be assured as markets become fully competitive. The consultation is in the form of an online questionnaire in all EU languages, supplemented by a more technical and legal "issues" document in English. Individuals, businesses and other stakeholders can reply to the questionnaire (external link) until 27 January.
The existing Postal Directive sets 2009 as the target for full accomplishment of the postal internal market and thus full market opening. 2006 will be an important year in the journey towards that target.
The Postal Directive requires Member States to further reduce the permitted monoppoly area.
2006 is when the European Commission intends to consider three things:
- The impact of the current Directive on EU postal services (through its 3rd "Application report");
- The impact of full market opening on universal postal service in the EU (through its "prospective study");
- A proposal confirming (according to Article 7 (3) of the Postal Directive) "if appropriate, the date of 2009 for the full accomplishment of the internal market". in line with the European Commission's commitment to transprency and better lawmaking, a proposal is accompanied by a document that assesses the impacts of the different policy options (an "impact assessment").
The consultation provides you with an opportunity to give us your input and opinions on developments in the postal sector, and the direction future EU policy in this area could take.
The consultation is in two parts:
- Part 1 covers issues on postal services of general public interest, and is an online questionnaire in all EU languages. We expect this to be of particulatr interest for commercial users and consumers.
- Part 2 covers the technical and legal sector challenges, likely to be of greater interest to a more limited group of stakeholders, eg, social partners, regulators, large users and operators. It will significantly accelerate the evaluation of stakeholder views if all responses to this part were given in English.
The consultation will run until 27 January 2006. It may not be possible to take into account responses received after this date.
Please either mail your response to part 2 to: Postal Services Unit, Office C100 04/55, Internal Market Directorate-General, European Commission, 1049 Brussels, Belgium. Or email us at : markt-e4-part2response@cec.eu.int
Link to news release at European Commission website.
More information on the Postal Services Directive.
