Letter from Richard Page, MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary
of State for Small Business, Industry and Energy, Department
of Trade and Industry, to Lord Tordoff, Chairman of the Committee
EUROPEAN POSTAL DIRECTIVE (9623/96 COM (96) 412
In my letter of 6 December[1] I promised to keep
you informed about progress in the negotiations on this Directive.
There has been an important development. You may recall that
at the Telecommunications Council meeting on 28 November a French/German
compromise for the second stage of liberalisation, that would
have delayed a decision on the second stage of liberalisation
until 2001 with implementation in 2003 at the earliest, was rejected
following opposition from a number of Member States, including
the UK, and the Commission. France did not let this rest and
raised the matter at the Dublin European Council. The Council's
asked the Telecommunications Council to take a decision by the
end of the year and a meeting was hastily arranged for 18 December.
My Private Secretary spoke to your Clerk to warn your Committee
of this latest development.
Events have moved very fast and political agreement was reached
at the Council yesterday. The agreed text will go now to a future
Council as an "A" point. From the Government's view
point the outcome was disappointing - we would have preferred
a commitment to specific further liberalisation from a predetermined
date. We made strong efforts, however, that proved successful
and we secured some significant improvements on the Franco/German
text, for which there seemed to be a qualified majority and which
the Commission said they would accept as a last resort. The main
features of the agreement are:
- direct mail and cross-border mail stay in the reserved
area for the time being;
- the Commission to come forward with a proposal for further
liberalisation by end 1998 with decisions to be made by the Council
and European Parliament by 1 January 2000. The text implies that
the objective is the further liberalisation of both direct mail
and cross-border mail, plus a review of the price and weight
limits, to take effect from 1 January 2003. Developments, in particular
economic, social and technological, and the financial equilibrium
of the universal service providers will be taken into account;
- there is a clause to end the Directive in 2004 if no
decisions are taken. This will apply pressure on the Council
and Parliament to reach decisions.
The Directive has still to be cleared by the House of Commons
European Legislation Select Committee: I have maintained the
UK Parliamentary scrutiny reserve. Now that the substantive issue
has been resolved we hope that the Council's proposals can be
finalised and accepted by the European Parliament so that we can
move to early adoption of the Directive.
We shall continue to keep you informed of developments.
20 December 1996
1 Printed in Correspondence with Ministers, 5th Report, Session 1996-97, p. 43. Back