Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-18-Speech-5-029"
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"en.20000218.3.5-029"2
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"Mr President, there is a mystery. What happened to the Postal Services Directive that was passed on 15 December 1997? There has been a deafening silence from the Commission during the period between then and now. I am sorry it is Commissioner Monti who is here today. I am very fond of him. He is one of the more diligent and hard working commissioners. It is a pity I cannot say the same for some of his other colleagues.
There has, over this period, been no real progress on the Postal Services Directive. Commissioner Monti stated that part of the reason for this was the organisation and reallocation of duties. That has only happened recently. For over a year the old Commission could have done some work on this. We really have not progressed very far.
However, since Commissioner Monti is here, I would like him to take a message back to Commissioner Bolkestein telling him what the Postal Services Directive was about. It was about gradual liberalisation; it was about a guaranteed universal service at an affordable price; it was about direct mail and cross-border mail remaining in the reserved sector. These issues were fundamental in that report and they should be fundamental in any forthcoming directive.
The postal service is not just for Christmas. It is for life. In the area in Scotland I come from it is much more than just a postal service. It is about keeping communities together. The postal service is also the bus service. The postal service is also the social service. The postal service is also the doctor. If we allow the postal services to drift into complete privatisation then we will lose all that and many of our local communities – we were voting earlier on tourism – will lose their tourist trade. We will cut them off.
The postal services are important. That message must be taken back from here today. The Commission must listen to it."@en1
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