Postal services in the EU

KEY POINTS

The directive sets out common rules concerning:

• the conditions governing the provision of postal services;
• the minimum standards for the universal postal service, in particular
  • the setting of quality standards in relation to delivery time;
  • compliance with tariff principles (cost orientation, non-discrimination, transparency) and transparency of accounts for the universal postal service;
  • the financing of the universal postal service under conditions that can guarantee its permanency (sustainability);
• the harmonisation of technical standards (Technical Committee 331 of the European Committee for Standardization (known as CEN) following standardisation requests made by the European Commission);
• the establishment of independent national authorities.

The universal postal service obligation

EU countries are obliged to guarantee a permanent, affordable, universal postal service everywhere within their territory, i.e. they have to guarantee as a minimum the following:

• a service (collection from access points and delivery) on 5 working days a week (with exceptions);
• the collection, sorting, transport and delivery of postal items weighing up to 10 kg;
• services for registered and insured items.

EU countries may designate one or more companies as universal service providers so that the whole territory is covered. This designation is subject to regular review.

Financing of the universal postal service

EU countries are not allowed to grant exclusive or special rights to provide postal services. They may, however, compensate the universal service provider if there is a net cost established and this represents an unfair financial burden in accordance with the EU treaties (e.g. State aid, public procurement, cost-sharing¹ mechanism).

Tariffs

Universal service tariffs must comply in particular with the following principles.

• They must
  • be affordable for all users;
  • be transparent and non-discriminatory;
  • be cost-oriented and give incentives, for an efficient universal service provision.
• Uniform tariffs may be maintained for public policy reasons.
• If there are special tariffs (e.g. for businesses), these should be non-discriminatory and transparent.

EU countries may provide a free postal service for blind and partially sighted persons.

Quality of services

• EU countries have to draw up quality standards for their domestic universal postal service (i.e. delivery times from end to end).
• Quality standards for intra-EU services are set out in Annex II of the directive.
• Independent performance monitoring must be carried out at least once a year.

For cross-border mail within the EU, Annex II of the directive requires:

• 85% of cross-border mail in the fastest standard category to be delivered within 3 working days; and
• 97% to be delivered within 5 working days.

Complaints procedures

A transparent, simple and inexpensive procedure must be available to deal with user complaints, with disputes settled fairly and promptly.

Technical harmonisation

Technical harmonisation is undertaken on the basis of a standardisation request from the Commission by Technical Committee 331 of CEN.

Regulatory authorities

EU countries have to establish independent national regulatory authorities that should be provided with all the necessary resources in terms of staffing, expertise and financial means, and carry out the tasks they have been designated by the directive, in particular relating to:

• the universal service;
• authorisation procedures;
• tariff controls and accounts;
• service quality;
• supply of information and statistics.

Provision of information

EU countries must ensure that service providers provide information to the national regulatory authorities, including financial information and information relating to the universal service, in particular for 2 purposes:

• to ensure conformity with this directive; and
• for clearly defined statistical purposes.

Cross-border parcel delivery services

In 2018, Regulation (EU) 2018/644 on cross-border parcel deliveries was adopted. This regulation complements the rules set out in Directive 97/67/EC, which focuses mainly but not exclusively on universal services, in order to address:

• regulatory oversight;
• the transparency of cross-border tariffs; and
• the assessment of cross-border, single-piece tariffs.