Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-09-Speech-4-036"
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"en.20100909.3.4-036"2
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"Mr President, Mr Simpson, ladies and gentlemen, I have now been a Member of the European Commission for around seven or eight months. You have often heard me state, including in this very Chamber, during my hearing on 13 January, the personal commitment that I have always made and will continue to make to the preservation and protection of public services and to the reconciliation of the internal market – for which I am one of the people responsible – with the citizens.
I agree, Mr Simpson, that we have a duty to ensure that all these requirements and all these conditions are fully met. In 2013, when all the EU Member States have implemented this reform, the Commission will present an official evaluation report to Parliament and to the Council. Other studies will be published before then. Moreover, in order to show how important your concerns are to me personally as Commissioner, and to President Barroso, I wish to inform you that, although I am under no obligation to do so, I intend to create a users’ dialogue group in 2011. The group of regulators is being established. In addition to and alongside that group I want to create a users’ group, so that businesses, citizen-users, trade unions, which have a very important role to play, and then Parliament, of course, can come around the same table and discuss what is happening on the ground, hear the report by the evaluators’ committee and regularly – just how regularly is still to be decided – carry out evaluations and hold dialogues in order to check that these various postal sector reforms are being implemented correctly.
That is the guarantee I am giving you, and I shall personally ensure, Mr Simpson, ladies and gentlemen, that this users’ dialogue group functions properly and transparently.
I will have the opportunity to repeat this when the Single Market Act is presented in October. It is within this context that we – that you – want to develop and forge ahead with this internal market. It is an opportunity for employment, since real importance is attached to its human and social dimension and, as far as I am concerned, to the protection of public services and services of general interest. That is why I welcome the question you are asking on behalf of your colleagues, Mr Simpson.
This very important project to reform postal services has been under way for more than just a few months. Work began on it a long time ago. The market will be fully opened up on 1 January 2011 in 16 Member States, which account for 95% of the EU’s postal volume. I repeat: this is a reform project that has been carefully thought out. It is a gradual reform that was announced in 1992 with the Green Paper. Moreover, this will to reform has been enshrined in no fewer than three directives, and validated by many successive democratic processes.
I would also point out that the third and most recent directive, which you know well, Mr Simpson, for many reasons, was adopted in 2008, with the support of the European Parliament and of a huge majority within the Council of Ministers. Twenty-five Member States voted for this reform, which has been carried out, therefore, in a fairly transparent way. It has not been carried out secretly, or randomly; it has been carried out because it meets a need, that of enabling this sector, which is very important in every respect – to quote some figures, it generates EUR 95 billion in turnover, and directly or indirectly affects 5 million employees – to evolve, to innovate, to move with the times and to better meet the expectations of users – of citizens and businesses alike. The completion of this internal market, provided it is structured and supported, is in my view a guarantee of innovation, of adaptation to change, and, therefore, of economic growth and of better services that are designed to meet citizens’ needs more fully.
Operators face obvious challenges due to our evolving social and economic practices, but we in the Union are fortunate in that we have long been preparing for the development of this postal sector by undertaking what is, I believe, a consistent, considered and gradual reform. This sector is developing fast. New technologies are radically changing the ways in which we communicate. The electronic substitution phenomenon is gaining ground and is quite simply the result of new behaviour patterns on the part of Europeans themselves. In addition to that, there are the effects of the various economic and financial crises we are experiencing.
With this in mind, ladies and gentlemen, quite frankly, who could actually think that a sudden, abrupt postponement of this process that we have carefully overseen is a desirable solution? Not the Commission, for at least three reasons. Firstly, achieving the 1992 Green Paper objectives is one important way for the European Union to come out of the crisis affecting the sector: we need efficient operators that rank among the best in the world, high-quality postal services and a sound, effective regulatory framework.
Secondly, with these directives we have established a robust regulatory framework that relies on the involvement of competent national regulatory authorities, which are going to work together regularly and in a much more productive way. Liberalisation is taking place, therefore, in a controlled manner. In particular, these national regulators will have the task of ensuring, Mr Simpson, that the universal service obligations, to which I am very committed, are actually fulfilled properly and funded.
Finally, any hesitation at this very advanced stage of the reform would create widespread legal uncertainty, which would benefit no one. It would harm not only newcomers to these postal markets, but all other operators in the sector, too. Suspending this process would, in our view, plunge the sector into a situation where it has to simply wait and see what happens, without being able to act.
I fully understand all the concerns expressed on the subject of employment and working conditions. I know how important the postal service is in the context of European employment, ladies and gentlemen. May I remind you that the third directive, which offers the Member States considerable scope to reconcile liberalisation and social requirements, states that – and this is my only reference to the text, Mr Simpson – social considerations must be duly taken into account in the preparations for liberalising the postal markets."@en1
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