EN 
 
 
OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK 
of 30 November 2010 
on the ratification or implementation of a Postal Payment Services Agreement 
(CON/2010/85) 
 
Introduction and legal basis  
Nineteen Member States1 agreed to sign the Postal Payment Services Agreement of 12 August 2008, as 
drawn up by the 24th Universal Postal Congress (hereinafter th e ‘Agreement’). Thus far, the European 
Central Bank (ECB) has not been consulted on any of the national draft legislative provisions ratifying or 
implementing the Agreement. Although some of the a ffected Member States have already ratified the 
Agreement, it still needs to be ratified by most of them. 
The ECB’s competence to deliver an  opinion is based on Articles 127(4) and 282(5) of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and the sec ond indent of Article 2(1) of Council Decision 
98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by national authorities 
regarding draft legislative provisions2, as the Agreement deals with cross-border payment instruments. 
In accordance with the first sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedure of the European Central 
Bank, the Governing Council has adopted this opin ion. It is addressed to the competent national 
authorities of the 19 Member States that agreed to sign the Agreement (hereinafter the ‘relevant Member 
States’). The ECB anticipates that the draft legislativ e provisions ratifying the Agreement will be almost 
identical in the relevant Member States. For this re ason, the ECB does not expect to be consulted on any 
draft legislative provisions that are addressed in this  own-initiative opinion. The ECB reserves the right to 
make additional comments on specific national draft legislative provisions which go beyond the mere 
ratification of the Agreement, on which the ECB may be consulted separately. 
 1. Purpose of the Agreement  
1.1 The Agreement obliges signatories to ensure, using b est efforts, that at least one of the following 
four postal payment services is provided in th eir territories: money order in cash, outpayment 
money order, inpayment money order or postal tran sfer. The Agreement contains substantive rules 
which apply to paper-based postal money orde rs as well as to non paper-based postal payment 
orders, such as orders forwarded by electronic means or by any other technical means. These 
                                                 
1  Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Spain,  France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, 
Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal , Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia. 
2  OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42. 
2 substantive rules address issues such as electr onic data-interchange, the processing of postal 
payment orders, inquiries and the liability regime.  
1.2 The Agreement is accompanied by regulations, as re vised by the Postal Operations Council in 2008 
and 2009, which set out how the Ag reement is to be implemented. 
 2. General observations  
2.1 The ECB notes that there is some overlap between the Agreement and Directive 2007/64/EC
3 on 
key legal points, such as the liability of postal payment services providers or the moment of 
irrevocability of a postal payment order. 
2.2 In this context, when signing the Acts adopted by the 24th Universal Postal Congress, including the 
Agreement, the relevant Member States made a D eclaration stating that their countries will apply 
the Acts adopted by the Congress in accordance with their oblig ations pursuant to the Treaty 
establishing the European Community and the Gene ral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 
the World Trade Organization. The wording of this  Declaration is in line with the wording of 
Article 4.3 of the Treaty on European Union which states, inter alia , that, ‘The Member States shall 
take any appropriate measure, gene ral or particular, to ensure fulfilment of the obligations arising 
out of the Treaties or resulting from the acts of th e institutions of the Union.’ and that ‘Member 
States shall … refrain from any measure which c ould jeopardise the attainment of the Union’s 
objectives’.  
2.3 The ECB is of the view that the relevant Member States that have signed the Declaration are 
reaffirming their obligation to apply any provisi ons of the Agreement in  accordance with their 
obligations under the Treaties. This would include obligations stemming from secondary 
legislation, such as Directive 2007/ 64/EC. Whilst the value of the D eclaration is ultimately subject 
to review by the national courts, a Member State’ s obligation to comply with the Treaties when 
entering into international obligations clearly derives from Article 351 TFEU. The Court of Justice 
of the European Union confirmed this in a judge ment of 2009, ‘However, the second paragraph of 
Article 307 EC obliges the Member States to take all appropriate steps to eliminate 
incompatibilities with Community law which have been established in agreements concluded prior 
to their accession. Under that provision, the Memb er States are required, where appropriate, to 
assist each other to that end and, wher e appropriate, to adopt a common attitude.’4. Given that this 
obligation extends to international agreements c oncluded prior to a Member State’s accession to the 
Union, such an obligation would clearly extend to  any international agreem ents, whether bilateral 
or multilateral, which were  concluded following accession.  
 
                                                 
3  Directive 2007/64/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 November 2007 on payment services in the 
internal market amending Directiv es 97/7/EC, 2002/65/EC, 2005/60/EC and 2006/48/EC and repealing Directive 
97/5/EC (OJ L 319, 5.12.2007, p. 1). 
4  Case C-118/07 Commission  v Finland [2009] ECR 10889, paragraph 28  
3 3. Specific observations  
Deletion of definition of ‘postal money orders' in the Agreement 3.1 In the context of the reference in Directive 2007/64/EC
5 to ‘postal money orders’ as defined by the 
Universal Postal Union, the ECB would like to point out that the 2008 version of the Agreement does not contain any definition of ‘postal money orde rs’, contrary to the previous version of the 
Agreement which was adopted in 2004 and which was in force at the time when Directive 
2007/64/EC was adopted. The ECB draws attention to th e fact that in order to address this issue and 
ensure legal certainty, national implementing meas ures should define ‘postal money orders’ instead 
of merely referring to ‘postal money orders’ as defined by the Universal Postal Union. 
Incompatibilities between the Agreement and Directive 2007/64/EC 3.2  In particular, the ECB would like to draw a ttention to the incompatib ilities between the Agreement 
and Directive 2007/64/EC that are set out below.  
3.2.1 First, the definition of the moment of irrevo cability of a payment order differs in the two legal 
instruments. The Agreement
6 defines the moment of irrevocability of a payment order as the 
moment when the payee is paid or the payee’s account is credited whereas, in Directive 2007/64/EC
7, a payment order is irrevocable, once it h as been received by the payer’s payment 
services provider.  
3.2.2 Second, under the Agreement8, inquiries are to be entertained within a period of six months from 
the day after that on which the postal payment or der was accepted. The deadline and its point of 
departure are different in Directive 2007/64/EC whic h provides that notification of an unauthorised 
or incorrectly executed payment transaction must be  made no later than 13 months after the debit 
date9. 
3.2.3 Finally, the scope and the duration of liability differ. Under the Agreement10, the postal payment 
services provider is liable until the postal payment order has been duly paid or the payee’s account credited. An exception to the liability of the pa yment services provider is provided for in case of 
delay in the execution of the services
11. This exception does not exist in Directive 2007/64/EC, 
which provides that the payee’s payment service provi der shall be liable to the payee for the correct 
execution of the payment transaction12. 
                                                 
5  Article 3(g)(vii) of Directive 2007/64/ EC contains this reference in the lis t concerning the negative scope of the 
Directive; paper-based postal money orde rs as defined by the Universal Postal Union are outside the scope of the 
Directive. 
6  Article 2.27 and Article 6 of the Agreement. 
7  Article 66 of Directive 2007/64/EC. 
8  Article 19.1 of the Agreement. 
9  Article 58 of Directive 2007/64/EC. 
10  Article 20 of the Agreement. 
11  Article 22.1.1. of the Agreement. 
12 Article 75 of Directive 2007/64/EC. 
4 3.2.4 The ECB considers it important that each relevant  Member State ensures that the ratification of the 
Agreement does not jeopardise the application of th e relevant national rules implementing Directive 
2007/64/EC and takes appropriate measures in this respect, where necessary. 
 This opinion will be published on the ECB’s website.   Done at Frankfurt am Main, 30 November 2010. 
 
[signed] 
 
The President of the ECB 
Jean-Claude TRICHET