§ Mrs. Anne CampbellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade when he expects that a European Union policy for postal services will be in place; and what progress has been made towards this, so far.
§ Mr. EggarThe European Council of Ministers' resolution of December 1993 mandated the Commission to bring forward proposals by July 1994 that defined the universal postal service and an appropriate area of reserved services, and established quality and technical standards. This flowed from the recommendations of the EC Green Paper on the development of the single market for postal services, published in June 1992. The Commission has not as yet come forward with these proposals: the delay, we understand, is due to problems with drafting the directives and debate about the appropriate legal basis. The Government will continue to press for draft directives, but it is too early to predict the likely time scale for their introduction, adoption and implementation.