WRITTEN QUESTION P-1723/00

by Mauro Nobilia (UEN) to the Commission

(20 May 2000)

Subject: Proposed amendment of Directive 97/67/EC of 15 December 1997

The proposal to amend Directive 97/67/EC(1) which is currently being discussed would entail substantial reductions in weight/price limits and the total liberalisation of direct advertising and outgoing cross-border mail while introducing the concept of special services, which would include the delivery of normal mail generated by means of the new technologies.

The charges made for universal postal services vary greatly from one Member State to another, partly for structural reasons, and the proposal in question would threaten some systems' capacity to sustain the burden of providing a universal service, with the result that in countries such as Italy it would be necessary, for structural reasons, to provide some form of compensation at the expense of private operators and/or the general taxpayer.

This being so:

- To what extent has the Commission taken account of the European Parliament's resolutions (of 14 January 1999 and 18 February 2000) with regard to the need to produce the feasibility and sustainability studies on which the liberalisation proposals are based and consult the various universal service providers to consider the implications of the proposals under discussion?

- Is the Commission aware that these proposals will favour the stronger Member States, which were already at an advantage in structural terms when the first directive was issued and have been pursuing a strategy of expansion for years, to the detriment of weaker Member States?

- Has Sweden's liberalisation of its postal services had positive effects on employment, prices and the budget?

- Has the Commission assessed in detail the varying implications of the proposed amendment of Directive 97/67/EC for individual Member States, and in particular Italy, which is making enormous efforts to maintain quality and output in the context of a general capping of costs, and will be severely and adversely affected by such a drastic liberalisation and its not altogether foreseeable consequences, which include in other countries as well as Italy the very real possibility of completely unacceptable social and employment implications?

- Has the Commission considered that the vagueness of the concept of special services could result in a sharp reduction in the postal services' reserved areas, with up to 80 % of the market being liberalised, and a serious breach of the principle of ensuring proportionality between the obligation to provide a universal service and the means used to attain that objective, thus placing at risk the economic sustainability of any such requirement?

(1) OJ L 15, 21.1.1998, p. 14.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(23 June 2000)

The aim of the proposal to revise Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service, recently adopted by the Commission, is to pursue the gradual and controlled liberalisation of the market in postal services, as provided for in Article 7(3) of the Directive. This proposal is based on a number of impact studies carried out following a Commission initiative, and on information received by the Commission from the parties involved, in particular universal service providers. Throughout the process, the Commission gave every consideration to the opinions expressed by the Members of the European Parliament, and in particular to the resolutions of 14 January 1999 and 18 February 2000.

In 1997, Directive 97/67/EC had already considered added-value services, referred to as new services (services quite distinct from conventional services), to be separate from universal service and something which therefore could not be reserved for the universal service providers. By defining special services in its proposal to amend this Directive, the Commission wished to clarify the general concept of added-value services and, in doing so, give it greater legal security. The Commission proposal therefore does not change the arrangements for providing these services; for quite some time these have had to involve a system of open competition.

In its approach to the postal sector, the Commission gives careful consideration to each Member State's circumstances and, on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, leaves it to the Member State to decide to implement a system which allows universal service to be maintained. To this end, and in accordance with the text adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, Directive 97/67/EC allows Member States to ensure that universal service is maintained, in particular by means of a reserved service which suits their needs and can be supplemented by a compensation fund linked to the licensing system. The proposal to revise the Directive does not change this system.

As stipulated in Directive 97/67/EC, the process of liberalisation of the postal market is gradual and controlled, which allows each Member State to adapt accordingly as the Community framework develops.

The expansion strategies pursued by some postal operators affect mainly those segments which have been open to competition for several years, and are essentially based on the need to adapt the postal sector to suit the new economic order.