Mr President, I am one of those who agree that it is appropriate that this particular service should be regulated at European level. If people are to be free to provide services across borders it is only fair and reasonable that we should have European regulations to govern it. In Ireland some services are provided by companies from outside Ireland, for example, English companies certainly operate there. But this directive has never been transposed into national law. It is the job of the Commission to ensure that national governments take account of their legal obligations under European law and transpose European directives. That has not been done in Ireland although a certain liberalisation has taken place and has not been impeded by the national government. A small segment of our market has been taken over by private operators. But the need for common legislation is underlined by the fact that in the Netherlands they have liberalised, in Germany they have not, yet German companies which enjoy the protection of national law seek to take market share in the Netherlands. This is another example of the importance of moving forward with common legislation and ensuring that it is put into effect throughout the Union. I come from a rural area. I support the principle of liberalising and the right of everybody to compete and I recognise the benefits that common regulation and liberalisation has brought over the years. For example it has enabled us to fly from peripheral parts of the European Union to the centre for a fraction of the cost of 20 years ago. I remember when people came into this House lobbying us in the national interest not to allow this liberalisation. We allowed it and the result is that our young people can travel and broaden their education. Our older people, even though on social welfare, can enjoy the benefits of travel. So liberalisation has taken a lot of parasites off our back in many areas and enabled many people to enjoy higher standards of living. On the other hand this is not a free market without limits and if you come from a rural area you recognise that some services in the free market situation cannot and will not be provided. So, the Commission, in bringing forward their new proposals, must remember those sparsely populated rural areas and not put anything in this legislation which will deprive those areas of the opportunities of having those services. In rural areas, for many years, even before the Irish Free State came into existence, we sometimes had this service of a post office. Today, it is probably the only public service in many remote areas and people are concerned that European legislation will eventually make it difficult to maintain it. I want to underline the fact that the existing legislation protects rather than threatens the right of every citizen in every remote area to have this service. But complaints are made by private individuals about social welfare being paid in the post offices in Ireland. I want the Commission to recognise that this is a necessary social service. It should go hand in hand with our postal services in rural areas. We must implement what the directive insists on, that the postal service is available to everybody.

Political group: PPE-DE