Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-03-11-Speech-1-096"
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"en.20020311.7.1-096"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the European Parliament’s major political groups reached a compromise within the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism on the Council’s common position on opening the Union’s postal services to competition and I congratulate Mr Ferber on this achievement.
The postal system is a service of general interest as well as an economic activity. The performance of the postal services contributes to the performance of the national economies and certain sectors, particularly banking, insurance or distance selling. At a time when we are setting up, in tandem with the single currency, the internal market of financial services, where we are trying to provide a favourable framework for
commerce in Europe, we cannot ignore the demands from these sectors to improve services and reduce the costs of postal services. A certain degree of competition, along with increased demands for quality services, encourages transparency of costs and contributes to the competitiveness of consumer or user activities of the postal services by giving them potential openings. I am, however, firmly against all types of full liberalisation, as the services of general economic interest play a role in the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the European Union. The European Charter of Fundamental Rights acknowledges the principle of access to the service of general economic interest as laid down in national legislation and practices. The importance of access to postal services is not the same in a country with 17 000 post offices and in a country that has barely one thousand. We must therefore guarantee that the opening up to competition will not have any negative consequences on the access to postal services in the most isolated or most remote regions.
In other words, I think that the modernisation of the postal services under the guise of competition is now required in order to develop these services and, more broadly speaking, for the competitiveness of our businesses. This liberalisation must, however, be gradual and controlled in order to preserve adaptability, economic viability and guaranteed access to the universal postal service throughout the Union’s territory. I think that the compromise before us brings together both these aims and that is why I will vote in favour of it tomorrow."@en1
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