Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-09-Speech-4-038"
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"en.20100909.3.4-038"2
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".
Mr President. Commissioner, thank you for your answer and for seeking to establish a dialogue among users. However, our group thinks that more is needed. As I am sure you know, we have always been critical of the Postal Directive. Improving the efficiency and dynamism of the sector would seem a laudable objective, but there are two essential elements that are not, to my mind, sufficiently developed or sufficiently guaranteed. These are the social aspect – working conditions – and the financing of universal service, which must be continued, at least according to the Directive. These two aspects are closely related.
As regards the social aspect, we note that the ball has been placed in the Member States’ court but that hardly any use is being made of the opportunities for creating a level playing field between former monopolies and new players in this sphere. That is a big mistake, as competition is not taking place on the basis of innovation and innovative concepts but rather on the basis of cost cutting in the sector, where labour costs account for approximately 70% of production costs. In practice, we are seeing postmen and postwomen being replaced by people who have precarious contracts, lower wages and less security. That is not the Europe we want to see.
Universal service – the obligation to guarantee a home delivery every working day, including in sparsely populated areas – has up to now been financed by the monopoly. In other words, large customers have been contributing towards the service to ordinary citizens. In practice, this will now have to be replaced by State aid, and what is more in a very difficult budgetary context in the next few years, and there is reason to fear this coming under threat.
Consequently, Commissioner, I should like to ask you the following questions. Do you agree with me that one of the most important objectives of the Directive, namely bringing about greater social and territorial cohesion, will be hard to achieve in this context? Secondly, you refer to a 2013 report, but could you not undertake in the shorter term a detailed analysis of Member States’ transposition of the Directive, addressing in particular the two aspects I cited: the social aspect and universal service? Finally, in addition, how does the Commission intend to strengthen the social dialogue in the sector at European level and take initiatives to arrive at a level playing field in the social sphere for all the workers in the sector?"@en1
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