Assessment of EU postal sector policy during the Second Barroso administration (2010-2014)

This paper assesses the EU postal sector policy of the second Barroso Commission from 2010 to 2014. The main goal of the Commission is to achieve a single European market for postal services. The paper distinguishes between the following three objectives, whose implementation should lead to the achievement of an internal postal market: implementation of the Third Postal Directive; fostering e-commerce and parcel delivery; and enforce its State aid framework in the postal sector. The analysis shows that almost all Member States have transposed the Directive into national law and fully liberalized their markets, but nevertheless competition in all Member States has only developed to a limited extent. While there is strong growth of the e-commerce sector, a consistent alignment of State Aid policy with USO and full market opening is still under development. The current design of the USO and its financing may not be appropriate in times of fast changing technology and consumer needs. Therefore, the paper presents new approaches, suggesting to include new technologies or even proposing to establish an intermodal USO for postal and telecommunication services.