News

The EU Commission organized a high level conference on 24 June in Brussels, gathering postal operators, regulators, EU commissioners, ministers and trade unions from most of the EU member countries. UNI Post & Logistics actively took part in the meeting. The first part of the meeting consisted of presentations, including from EU Commissioners Mc Creevy (Commissioner for Internal Market and Services) and Kroes (Commissioner for Competition). They mentioned the importance of quickly implementing the liberalization process and that market opening was a means and not an end for a sustainable postal sector. They also said that protectionism “occurring through back doors”, including minimum wages which the Commission considered was barriers to competition were unacceptable. UNI reacted strongly to this point pointing out that UNI was not prepared to accept liberalization that was in reality social dumping, and indeed, if every citizen is to gain from liberalization, as Commissioner Kroes mentioned, having a minimum wage in the postal sector would be a start.



The second part of the meeting was dedicated to panel discussions; the first one on users’ needs in a liberalized postal market and the second on coping with regulatory challenges. The discussions evolved around the Universal Service, its evolution and funding. Indeed, as Jhonny Thijs, CEO of De Post -La Poste (Belgium) mentioned in order for liberalization to be a success, the Universal Service must be fully funded.



The other point of discussion was on the social aspect of liberalization, including minimum wages. Frank Heemskerk, Dutch State Secretary of Economic Affairs, made an important point in saying that one of the conditions for the Netherlands to open up its market is that new competitors on the postal market have socially acceptable working conditions. He underlined the importance of consultation at national and European level between employers, unions and governments. He reaffirmed the duty of the Dutch government to open up its market in a socially responsible way.