Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-07-10-Speech-2-030"

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"Mr President, more than a century ago, the failure on the part of private postal companies to come up to the mark led to the state taking over. Since then, this has been the best guarantee for postal deliveries on time and at the same price wherever this may be. Differences between densely populated areas, where the delivery of post is profitable, and sparsely populated or remote areas, where the delivery is expensive, fell by the wayside. The sorting and delivery of mail came into the hands of professional people who delivered quality. In many cases, the postman and the post office became a lifeline, not only for rural residents, but also for the economically weakest city dwellers. For many years, we have noticed that private companies are keen on buying the most profitable sections, for which they ideally use temporary staff, including students, housewives and the elderly, for whom postal delivery is not vital in their lives. They prefer not to pay these people by the hours worked, but by the number of letters handled, and replace postal offices by contracts with supermarkets. As a result, customers have to make do with less quality and the number of staff is cut down drastically. Politicians who condone this development actually cause a problem instead of solving it. We will soon face the risk of the government needing to subsidise in order to keep the most loss-making sections of postal delivery above water, while the profitable sections will be creamed off by large international companies. Whilst the compromises struck between the three largest groups may provide a delay and weaken the original proposal, they do not offer anything in the way of sustainable solutions. My group has tabled amending proposals and has supported those of others, but we consider the option of rejecting the proposal and continuing the existing situation to be the best by a long shot."@en1

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