The European Committee for Postal Regulation (CERP) project team (PT) which specifically covers matters of interest for postal service consumers held its first meeting last 5 March in the German city of Bonn. The gathering was chaired by the German regulator BNetzA and attended by representatives from the national regulatory authorities (NRAs) of Sweden (PTS), Slovenia (APEK), Ireland (ComReg), Romania (ANC), Belgium (BIPT) and Portugal (ANACOM).
The working agenda included presentations and discussion about the following projects which the team is expected to work on over the course of this year:
i) the drawing up of a questionnaire addressed by the NRAs to the respective countries' consumers about matters of interest for postal service consumers;
ii) the production of a report indicating the practices used by the various NRAs and which have shown to be effective in consumer relations.
The said report may include matters as diverse as complaint handling, obligations to compensate consumers in certain circumstances, the collection and disclosure by the NRAs of relevant information for consumers about service providers' activity, NRA relations with consumer organisations, problems associated to mail collection and delivery, changes to introduce due to the recent modification of the community regulatory framework and service accessibility. The preparation of this report will bear in mind the results obtained in the questionnaire conducted in 2006 by the Consumer Relations PT, which sought to gauge the NRAs' amount of contact with postal service consumers, and about which a balance was also drawn up.
The project team's next meeting will be scheduled in due time by the German co-ordinator, per confirmation by the other participants.
