Filenews 8 November 2021
Postal services and parcel delivery are doing well according to EU reports highlighting the success of European Single Market rules and the challenges posed by digitalisation.
The Commission has today published two reports assessing the situation and developments in the European single market for postal and cross-border services under the current legal framework, namely the EU Postal Services Directive of 1997 and the EU Regulation of 2018 on cross-border parcel delivery.
The reports show how these two pieces of legislation have successfully contributed to the modernisation and opening up of European postal services, ensuring that all EU citizens have access to basic mail and parcel services, and have led to greater transparency regarding tariffs for cross-border delivery services for individual parcels.
However, the reports also highlight how digitalisation has changed the single market in postal services and parcels, creating new opportunities and challenges for postal operators, and have changed the needs and expectations of consumers. The Postal Services Directive established a common regulatory framework for European postal services with minimum requirements for a more harmonised universal service obligation, while allowing for certain possibilities for flexibility at national level. Today's report shows that the directive has helped to ensure an affordable universal service in the EU.
However, the report also shows that many Member States have had to reduce the characteristics and scope of their universal service obligation, which is mainly due to the increase in the cost of these services, combined with the changing needs of users and postal service operators.
In addition, the report on the application of the 2018 Regulation on cross-border parcel delivery shows that this Regulation has led to greater transparency as regards tariffs, in particular through reporting obligations for operators and through the Commission's online transparency tool on parcel invoices. As regards regulatory oversight, the report shows that there is still no convergence in the way national authorities analyse tariffs, pointing out only sporadic monitoring measures against unjustifiably high tariffs by national authorities.
