The national regulatory framework for postal services, which until 1999 was based on an exclusive situation for CTT-Correios de Portugal (the Portuguese postal service), was changed by transposition into the internal legal order of Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997, concerning the common rules for development of the internal community postal services market and the improvement of service quality.
The national regulatory framework is currently based on Law no. 102/99 of 26 July (Postal Sector Basic Law), which sets out the general bases for the establishment, management and operation of postal services in national territory, as well as international services originating in or addressed to national territory. This measure put into practice the objectives of community policy, endorsing the principle of gradual and controlled liberalisation of postal services, while maintaining the necessary guarantees for the provision of a universal service. The Basic Law thus seeks to define the scope of the universal postal service to be provided by the universal service provider, delimiting the services comprised by it and the reserved and non-reserved areas.
To fulfil and develop the Postal Sector Basic Law, two fundamental documents were subsequently approved.
The bases for the concession of universal postal service agreed upon by the State and CTT-Correios de Portugal (universal service provider) define a set of reciprocal obligations and rights of the conceder and concessionaire, setting out which activity areas are given over to CTT-Correios de Portugal at the level of postal infrastructures and the services the company must provide, as well as the respective levels of quality and reliability, in order to guarantee the rights of users in the access and use of those same services (Decree-Law no 448/99 of 4 November).
Decree-Law no. 150/2001 of 7 May in turn regulated the ways for those entities that intend to provide postal services under a competitive regime to access the market, as well as the corresponding rights and obligations. To this end, an individual licence system was instituted, applicable for the provision of non-reserved postal services covered in the scope of universal service, while the provision of non-reserved postal services not covered by universal service is subject to possession of a general authorisation, whose regime is less demanding, both vis-à-vis requirements for access to the activity and the imposition of obligations.
Under terms of this new regulatory framework, and to realise same, the following instruments were formalised:
- Universal Postal Service Concession Contract, on 1 September 2000, under the terms of and as per Decree-Law no. 448/99 of 4 November.
- Convention between the Directorate General of Trade and Competition (DGCC ? Direcção Geral do Comércio e da Concorrência), the ICP and CTT-Correios de Portugal on 21 December 2000, which regulates and defines the price-setting rules for the services comprising the universal postal service provided by the latter company, covering the reserved and non-reserved services included in universal service. Two addenda were later signed, concerning the regime for setting non-reserved service prices for 2002 and 2003;
- Convention between the ICP and CTT-Correios de Portugal on 21 December 2000, which sets and publishes the minimum levels and parameters for service quality associated with the provision of universal postal service provided by the company, likewise covering the reserved and non-reserved services include in same. An addendum was signed in September 2001 on the quality levels for intra-community cross-border postal service.
