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UNI’s demands for a moratorium ripple through EU Hi Level Conference



Report on the High Level Conference on Postal Services organised by the European Commission DG Market and the Spanish Presidency of the UE, held at the end of April 2010 in Valencia



It was a hard fight for UNI Post & Logistics before the European Commission finally accepted that there should be a speaker from the workers. The majority of speakers proposed for the high level conference on postal services was dominated by CEOs, national governments and high level politicians. It needed the intervention from the GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament and the Spanish government to convince DG Market to allow a union presentation.



Michel Barnier, Commissioner for Internal Market and Services stressed that some member states haven’t yet taken the necessary steps to alter their national legislation even though the market opening will take place by the end of the year. José Blanco López, Minister of Transport and Public Work in Spain, Joëlle Toledano, Commissioner, ARCEP, France and Annegret Groebel, Head of Department, Bundesnetzargentur, Germany expressed various concerns regarding the national transposition processes and see a lack of regulation in the sector. José Blanco also aid that liberalisation must take account of ensuring the European Social model was maintained. Moritz Leuenberger, former president of Switzerland and now Minister highlighted the gap between the pressure of new competitors and the demands from citizens for comprehensive postal services. Sjoerd Feenstra, Deputy Head of Unit in DG Employment talked about the lack of social dimension, but Mr. Barnier was very clear in saying that it wouldn’t help the postal sector if we put a stop on this process. He claimed that this would end up with confusion.



“What we could see very clearly”, said Cornelia Berger, policy officer in UNI europa Post & Logistics, “was that the European Commission and especially Mr. Barnier have heard our demand for a moratorium of the postal liberalisation. Our actions have created concerns in DG Market that the process will need to be stalled. We also see in the presentations and in personal discussions that for various reasons several stakeholders, politicians and employers agree with our demand to postpone the deadline. Only the European Commission ignores this fact and refuses to provide studies, support and advice to national governments how to cope with the social consequences. But we will continue fighting for this and we will succeed.”



Neil Anderson, head of department of UNI Post & Logistics, in his intervention, reminded the audience of the social consequences of this proposed liberalisation. The market in already liberalised countries like in the Netherlands and Germany is dominated by social dumping and a loss of employment. So far only 3 countries have a proper legislation which includes social regulation, Austria, Belgium and now there is proposal for a new law in Spain. But the European Commission neglects this fact; and in UNI’s view it doesn’t fulfil their task by giving advice to the member states on how to cope with the social consequences. We have now 7 months left and there is no study or guidelines from the Commission’s side on social topics. He stressed the need for a moratorium and presented a red anti-liberalisation t-shirt from the Norwegian Postal Trade Union with the slogan, “Stop the 3^rd Postal Directive” to Mr. Kiljanski of DG Markets to remind him of his responsibilities to deal with the social issues.