WRITTEN QUESTION E-1993/02 by Manuel Medina Ortega (PSE) to the Commission. Mail to the Canary Islands.
Date: 2002-07-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Canary Islands, European standard, France, Spain, application of EU law, postal service, provision of services

C 277 E/254

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

14.11.2002

Be that as it may, the honourable Member’s question concerns a very important aspect of the Internal
Market: the collective management of rights and the operation of societies involved in their management.
The Commission, and especially DG Internal Market, plays very close attention to changes in the sector
and in particular to initiatives by management societies with regard to adapting their methods of operation
to market requirements. The Commission is constantly monitoring the sector, particularly because the
societies involved in collective management are responsible # to a considerable extent # for controlling
copyright and related rights as currently harmonised by seven directives on intellectual property. The
Commission thus maintains an ongoing and thorough dialogue on these matters with management
societies and all interested parties.

(2002/C 277 E/282)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1993/02

by Manuel Medina Ortega (PSE) to the Commission

(8 July 2002)

Subject: Mail to the Canary Islands

A letter mailed from Strasbourg can take as long as 17 days to reach the Canary Islands, even though there
are daily flights, direct or indirect, between the two locations. What action does the Commission propose
to take to remedy this state of affairs, which is a visible obstacle to the operation of the internal market?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(12 August 2002)

The Postal Directive 97/67/EC (1) sets requirements at Union level for setting the quality of universal postal
service targets, for performing its independent measurement and for publishing the performance results.

In particular, the quality standards for intra-community cross border services have been set for the fastest
standard category of mail services in the Directive’s Annex as follows: 85 % of the mail should be delivered
within three working days after postage, whilst 97 % should be delivered within five working days after
postage of the letter. The Canary Islands are not subject to any exceptions to these requirements.

As a consequence, a priority letter that would take seventeen days to be delivered from Strasbourg to the
Canary Islands would not fulfil the requirements of the Postal Directive, unless exceptional circumstances
had occurred.

The latest available independent quality measurement results (2) show that Spain meets, roughly (3), the
expected standards in the flow of mail from France to Spain. However, these results do not specify the
information for particular places within the Member States. For this reason, the Commission services shall
make inquiries to the Spanish regulatory authority (Ministerio de Fomento) and, if necessary, the French
authorities, about the measurement results for mail from France to the Canary Islands, and may take
appropriate measures if the required standards are not fulfilled.

(1) Directive 97/67/EC of the 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, OJ
L 15, 21.1.1998.
International Post Corporation, Unex results for 2001, available at
http://www.ipc.be/documents/2001_UNEX_Results.pdf.

(2)

(3) 86 % in D+3 and 96.4 % in D+5.