The Council of transport of the European Parliament supported on Tuesday a compromise achieved amongst Member countries that the market of postal services should be liberalized completely starting with the year 2011.
The final vote on this matter is planned for the plenary meeting of the European Parliament which should take place in the spring of next year.
The Council of transport also turned down on Tuesday a whole range of amendments which were aimed to change the compromise solution of the EU Commission. Member countries have reached on October, 1st a political agreement on postal liberalization including postal items less than 50 grams starting with the year 2011.
The market for postal items above 50 grams was liberalized earlier.
The state monopoly for the delivery of postal items less than 50 grams was maintained with the goal to secure a safe delivery to those people living in locations like distant villages and islands. Those are the cases where private postal services are not interested in since they are not profitable.
According to a decision which should become final by spring next year, Member countries will have the possibility to choose amongst two options to secure a safe delivery for everybody.
Such measures could include funding mechanisms, such as direct state subsidies or private postal operators paying into funds which then again should finance the delivery of postal items to those parts of the country which are of low market interest.