European Parliament
President. –
Question No 25 by Helène Goudin 
Subject: Deregulation of postal services in the EU
The independent consultancy firm Wik has been tasked by the Commission with evaluating the deregulation of postal services in the EU. It has been reported in articles in the Swedish media that the consultancy firm has among other things proposed the following:
No EU country is to be allowed to impose a requirement on any postal operator to charge a standard rate for postage. Pricing must be free and market-based and not publicly regulated. This means that it may become cheaper to send a letter within a city than between two towns in the same country that are far away from one another. In addition, the rules stating how often mail must be delivered are to be curtailed to a minimum of one day per week instead of five days per week, which is the case at present.
How does the Commission view the above proposals? Does it believe that the abolition of a standard postage rate can have adverse consequences for inhabitants of remote localities in sparsely populated countries like Sweden and Finland?

