Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, yet again – but not at quite as late an hour as otherwise in Parliament – we are able to debate the further development of postal services in the European Union. In recent years – one might almost say decades, when I think back to when the Commission presented the first Green Paper on the further development of postal services – we have in fact managed, step by step, to open up the European Union's markets in postal services. The path we took together in the past was a good one for the public as users of postal services, but also for the service providers, who were enabled to develop themselves as competitive enterprises. We are here today to debate, and come to a decision about, the Council's Common Position of last October. At First Reading, we very intensively grappled with the Commission proposal on the development of postal services, and were able to convince the Council of the rightness of our arguments on many points. I would just like to point out that the deletion of the definition of special services, including express services, was Parliament's idea and was taken over by the Council, and that the retention of price and weight limits for outgoing mail in the Council text was something Parliament had demanded, and thus a great success for us. I would also like to enter on Parliament's credit side the fact that we were able essentially to get our way on special tariffs, cross-subsidies and the further timetable. The greatest controversy in recent weeks and months has, of course, been about the weight and price limits. I think that the Council has found a fair compromise between the Commission proposal and the outcome of First Reading in Parliament. The Commission had proposed 50 grammes, Parliament 150 grammes, and the Council decided in favour of the mean value, that is, 100 grammes. I think that is a fair compromise towards further opening up postal services. In committee, we very intensively grappled with the Council Common Position. I think, across all group lines, we achieved a good result, which amounts to this: Further liberalisation of the post will not be delayed. I hope that my proposal, as adopted in committee, will be confirmed by the plenary on Wednesday, and, as things stand, there is no conciliation procedure, which means the markets have a clear road ahead, as do the national legislatures to transpose the European norms. I wish at this juncture to express my gratitude to the Belgian Presidency of the Council, under whose aegis this compromise has been achieved; to the Spanish Presidency of the Council, which has worked very constructively with me in order to reach a solution which obviates the need for a conciliation procedure, and of course, to the Commission and to you, Commissioner Bolkestein. I think that the achievement of our very intensive discussions over recent weeks and months has been that the Commission has guided onto a sensible track Parliament's justified concerns and the political possibilities in the Council. I think it makes sense for us, as with telecommunications, to be informed on a two-yearly basis how the postal sector as a whole appears to be developing. It was a matter of great concern to my fellow Members, and I, as rapporteur, am very glad to take it up, that we should closely follow what happens in this sector, which is of course an important part of all our lives, for everyone is happy if, as is to be hoped, he gets agreeable post and not just bills. It is important that the maintenance of postal services should be safeguarded throughout the European Union, in remote and rural areas, rather than just taking the pickings of an interesting market, so that all citizens may have full access in the long term to postal services. We must constantly remind ourselves of this, to which we want to commit the Commission, by obliging them to submit to us a report on the subject every other year. I also attach great importance to our desire to be involved when the post is developed further. The Commission will be carrying out a study in 2006. That is going to be stated in the directive, and our concern is that we be involved in the run-up to it, when the issues and topics to be considered and studied are to be worked out. For that, too, many thanks to the Commission, for its readiness to go down this road together with Parliament. I think we are on the right road, and I hope that, at the end of this decade, the postal services will have achieved their objective of being competitive enterprises providing their services for the benefit of Europe's citizens.

Political group: PPE-DE