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. 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.

Maintaining a high quality universal service
The Commission had adopted its proposal only 15 month ago. The text voted today by the European Parliament reflects the overall political agreement between the institutions and maintains the key elements of the Commission's initial proposal, in particular: the accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services via the abolition of the reserved area in all Member States; the confirmation of the scope and standard of universal service; reinforcement of consumers' rights and upgrading of the role of national regulatory authorities; the offering of a list of measures Member States may take to safeguard and finance, where necessary, the universal service.

Market opening
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.

A Lisbon deliverable
Postal services are at the cross roads of the communication and e-commerce sectors, and as such they are a cornerstone of the internal market and account for some 1% of EU GDP. With the removal of reserved areas, users of postal services can expect the services available to them to develop and further improve. Universal service providers will be motivated to become more reliable and efficient and to further increase their customer focus in the light of potential competition from new market entrants. Full market opening will also directly foster the creation of new jobs in new postal companies and in the industries dependent on the postal sector, fully in line with the goals of the Lisbon agenda.

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.