Today the European Parliament adopted the new Postal Directive, giving its final political approval to EU postal reform. The vote confirms the broad political consensus on the way forward for opening EU postal markets to full competition by the year 2011. The Commission will assist Member States in implementing the new Directive and will take an active role in monitoring closely market developments to make sure that EU citizens and businesses obtain the benefits from high quality postal services foreseen by the Directive.
Commission President José Manuel Barroso welcomed Parliament's vote, identifying it as a clear example of a Europe of Results: "Postal reform arms Europe's postal operators for the challenges and the opportunities of the communications revolution. Postal Services are vital for our citizens and businesses. Since the first Postal Directive in 1997 performance, quality and reliability of postal services in Europe have substantially increased to the benefit of all postal users. This Directive will further stimulate this process. This demonstrates the common commitment of Parliament, the Council and the Commission to reform to meet the Lisbon goals."
Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said: "This is a shared political success; there is a strong consensus on the new postal Directive between EU institutions in line with the objectives we set out in our proposal.
The final date for achieving full market opening is 31 December 2010, with the possibility for some Member States to postpone full market opening by two more years as a maximum and the inclusion of a temporary reciprocity clause applying to those Member States that make use of the latter transitional period. The new Directive is the final step in a long reform process that has already seen large areas of EU postal markets opened to competition, with very positive results.
EU postal reform will continue to require close monitoring of the development of competition. The Commission will assist Member States with the implementation of the Directive to secure the high quality of services that EU citizens expect.