The State is responsible, under no. 1 of the article 5 of Law 102/99, of 26/07, to ascertain the existence and availability of universal postal service, taken as a permanent offering of postal service with specified quality, rendered all over the national territory, with accessible prices to every user, in order to satisfy the communication needs of the population and economical and social activities.
As such, the State, under no. 2 of same article must provide in a way that the density of contact of access points keeps up with user?s needs.
On 1 November 2000, the State has celebrated with CTT the Concession Contract of Universal Postal Service (pursuant the article 7 of Law no. 102/99), where this enterprise is bound to provide the following services and activities (clause 2 of the mentioned Agreement):
- The establishment, management and exploration of postal network;
- To provide the following services, which are part of the universal postal service, on the national and international scope:
- The postal service for mail shipment, which includes addressed publicity, books, catalogues, newspapers and other periodicals, whether by express distribution or not, up to 2 Kg in weight;
- The service for postal parcels up to 20 kg in weight;
- The postal service for registered mail and remittance of stated value, including the citation and judicial summons services by postal means;
- To provide the following services and activities on the national scope:
- The emission and sales of stamps and other postal values;
- The emission of postal orders;
- To place, on the public way, pillar-boxes and mail-boxes to gather the mail;
On the scope of public postal network6https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55134, the specific duties of the concessionaire are the following (clause 9 of the Concession Contract):
- In compliance with law, to allow the qualified authorities on the field of postal activity, in equal conditions and no discrimination, to have access to the public postal network;
- Establish and maintain in good working conditions, safety and preservation, the public postal network, as well as watching over the operating and adequate exploration;
- To develop in quality and quantity, the public postal network, fulfilling namely the objectives which will be settled on the agreement of objectives for development of public postal network and minimum services offering in order to guarantee the quality level of the services;
- To accomplish the applicable legislation as far as the territory ordination, ambient and patrimony protection are concerned;
The concessionaire should as well ? (...) adopt measures to guarantee the usefulness of the service for users with special needs, namely accommodating the structures where that service is rendered in order to assure an easy access?.
The specific duties of the concessionaire (clauses 10 and 11 of the Concession Contract) are:
- In the scope of rendering the universal postal service:
- To collect the postal mail, from pillar-boxes and mail-boxes placed on the public way or from concessionaire places fit for that purpose, at least once a day every working day;
To fulfil the distribution, at least once a day, every use working ful day at each addressee?s home or on appropriate installations, as stated by law.
- In the scope of emission and sale of stamps and emission of postal orders to be reported as such in regulation of its own7https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55135; 8https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55137 .
In the Agreement of Quality of Universal Postal Service9https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55138, celebrated between ANACOM and CTT pursuant clause 12 of the Concession Contract, the objectives of quality of service, which CTT are bound to provide, were listed.
By means of a agreement to be established between ANACOM and CTT, pursuant no.1 and 2 of clause 15 of Concession Contract shall be stated: (i) The objectives for development of public postal network; (ii) The objectives of minimum services offering, of technical characteristics and advanced resources. This agreement is celebrated, according to no. 3 of the same clause, for a minimum period of three years, automatically extended for equal period, coming into force from the ratification date by the conceding party (Portuguese STATE). It has been foreseen, the alteration in the scope of the services reserved for CTT, in view of the progressive liberalization of the sector, following the transposition for the internal legal proceedings of the Directive 2002/39/CE of 10/06/02,10https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55139 which alters the Directive 97/67/CE11https://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=55140 concerning the opening for competition of Community?s postal service. This transposition will not imply alterations as far as the Agreement?s objective referred to on the previous paragraph, is concerned.
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6 According to no. 1 of clause 5 of the Concession Contract, the public postal network ?[?] comprehends namely the collection of human and material resources rendering universal postal service, namely those existing in the following operational units:
a) Postal mail handling Center;
b) Postal mail distribution handling Center;
c) Post-Offices;
According to no. 2 of the same article, ?is part of public postal service:
a) The real estate, where the concession?s operative units mentioned on the previous number, are located;
b) Other real estate or part of, where the concessionaire?s services are inserted, for development of the granted activities;
c) The real estate used for exploration of the granted activities;
d) The rights and duties concerning to legal proceedings and at each moment connected to the concession, including those of labour, of mutual, of work by contract, of location and service provided?.
7 Decree-Law no. 360/85, of 3 Septemberhttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=24300
8 Ministerial Order no. 536/95, of 3 of Junehttps://www.anacom.pt/render.jsp?contentId=24305
9 Convention signed between the Instituto das Comunicações de Portugal and CTT - Correios de Portugal, S.A.https://www.anacom.pt/template12.jsp?categoryId=40091
10 Directive 2002/39/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 June 2002 amending Directive 97/67/EC with regard to the further opening to competition of Community postal services
11 Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service
