The Political Issues working group (WG) of the European Committee for Postal Regulation (CERP) held a meeting on 8 September 2006 in Paris, chaired by the Netherlands and Norway, at which the following stood out:
- The International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) gave a presentation on the work of the WG UPU Structure and Composition of the organisation?s Council of Administration (CA), emphasising that the next meeting during the CA should see the definition of one or two final models to be fine-tuned in 2007 and approved in 2008. The Bureau also highlighted the upcoming November Strategy Conference to be held in Dubai, whose aim is to present future scenarios for the Union and to determine the major focuses of the Nairobi World Postal Strategy for 2008;
- The United Kingdom gave a presentation on the impact of liberalising the British postal market, reporting that same has been very positive for most of the services provided to citizens and for the development of new activities;
- The European Commission?s representative presented the results of studies it commissioned to the consultancy firms WIK and PricewaterhouseCoopers, indicating that same reflect the position of the consultants and not necessarily the Commission. He also stated that a study will be presented to the Member States at the end of the year, along with the Third Postal Directive Proposal.
Portugal reported that the concession bases were modified last June to include a new non-reserved service ? public electronic mailbox service ? and that various countries had expressed interest in having more information about same.
