A European Parliament committee is expected to vote later on Monday to allow full competition in postal services across the European Union from 2011, two years later than originally planned.
The assembly's transport committee is set to adopt by a broad majority a cross-party deal on the measure, which has divided the bloc's 27 countries and angered many of the 90 billion euro ($120 billion) sector's 2 million workers. Labour unions say liberalisation threatens jobs and that protests against the reforms will continue.
The European Commission had proposed the completion of the freeing up of postal services to full competition from the start of 2009 to include the collection and delivery of letters weighing up to 50 grams. Heavier mail is already liberalised.
But members of the Socialist and Liberal blocs and the centre-right European People's Party have backed a compromise deal that will also go to full parliament next month. The compromise will lay down the gauntlet to EU states, which have joint say with the assembly on the measure.
The package being voted on in committee comprises:
-- The final date for full liberalisation on December 31, 2010, two years later than the Commission had proposed.
-- New member states and those with specific topography, such as many islands, a reference to Greece, could have until the end of 2012.
-- States would be given until January 1, 2010 to notify the Commission about how they would fund nation-wide universal services, such as minimum collection and deliveries of mail.
-- States would be allowed to maintain national collective bargaining and other agreements to safeguard employment.
-- Countries that have already fully liberalised their sector, such as Britain and Sweden, could in the meantime refuse to authorise competitors from EU states that won't open their own mail sectors until 2011 or later.
Germany and the Netherlands plan to liberalise their markets fully from next January but may reconsider. UNI-Europa Post and Logistics, which represents postal unions across Europe, urged the transport committee to scrap the measure, saying the compromise did not spell out how jobs would be protected or guarantee basic services. "It's very likely" that unions will continue with stoppages and protests, UNI-Europa's John Pedersen told Reuters.
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