After long negotiations lasting throughout most of 2007, on 8 November 2007, under the Portuguese Presidency, a common position of the Council was adopted changing Directive 97/67/EC regarding the full accomplishment of the Community's postal services internal market.
The EC considered that the text of the common position totally reflected the fundamental elements of its initial proposal, presented on 19 October 2006, also respecting the modification made by the EP on a first reading. Standing out, particularly, among these changes, is the final date for the sector's full liberalization (until 31 December 2010), some Member States being able to postpone the market's full liberalization for another two years, at the most, and including a reciprocity clause applying to Member States that make use of that transition period. Together with the sector's full liberalization, the directive safeguards the provision of the universal service to all users regardless of where they are located in the EU1.
To better support ICP-ANACOM's intervention in the framework of its duties and taking into account the coming liberalization of the sector, ICP-ANACOM promoted a study on the development of competition in the Portuguese postal market, conducted in 2006 by an independent consultant, to characterize the market and its forecasted evolution, and to identify possible effects on the sector resulting from potential liberalization scenarios.
ICP-ANACOM promoted (at a seminar that took place on 26 September 2007) the public presentation of this report, which main conclusions indicated that the Portuguese postal market seems to be ready for full liberalization, the general effect of this liberalization being presented as globally favourable and with low probability of creating disruptive effects, notwithstanding the need to clearly define the future postal activity's regulatory framework, namely regarding the US's definition and financing scheme, the corresponding provider's statute, the pubic postal network's access regime, and the alternative operators' obligations.
Considering the abovementioned liberalization scenario, clearly established by the EU, and the need to carry out a deeper analysis of the Portuguese market aiming at the future regulation of postal services, ICP-ANACOM decided to launch in 2007 a study on the consumption of postal services by the business market in Portugal, carried out by a consultancy firm hired for that purpose.
This study is justified by the importance of the business segment in the postal sector, which, according to a study carried out for the EU2, is responsible for about 89 per cent of the overall traffic originated in Portugal. Public entities, financial companies and electronic communications companies stand among the largest senders of Direct Mail. The courier, priority and parcels services are led by the pharmaceutical industry, mobile components, editors, and textile and footwear industries.
The study intended: (1) to characterize business consumers regarding the demand of postal services; (2) to characterize the business to business and business to consumer postal markets; (3) to evaluate the perceived quality and the satisfaction levels of business consumers; (4) to analyze the different issues related with market competition, namely liberalized area's market shares, to evaluate the perception of competition by business customers and to asses their behaviour regarding sector regulatory developments.
1 The new Postal Directive (Directive 2008/6/EC) of the European Parliament and the Council was published on 20 February 2008.
2 ''Development of Competition in the European Postal Sector'', Ecorys (2005).
