On Wednesday, November 19, 2003, the Vice-president of the National Regulatory Authority for Communications (ANRC), Alexandrina Hîrtan, took part in the Pre-accession Committee Forum, in the openings of the European Committee for Postal Regulation Plenary (CERP). Founded in 1992, CERP promotes the co-operation between its 46 state members, in order to contribute to the development of the European postal sector. The CERP members are both the European Union, and other European countries.
The ANRC Vice-president presented the postal services regulatory framework in Romania, focusing on the aspects related to the implementation of the universal service in this sector.
Since June 2002, the date it was founded, the National Regulatory Authority for Communications has taken over the responsibilities for the regulation of the postal services sector. Its responsibilities include the authorization of the postal services providers, the mediation and resolution of disputes between the providers and between the users and the providers, and with respect to the universal service – the designation of providers, the setting out of quality standards and the delivery terms, the approval of tariffs and the establishing of net costs compensation mechanisms.
In Romania, the postal services market was fully liberalized in 2001, when, on September 22, the monopole of “Posta Româna” was eliminated. In 2001 were 8 companies authorized to provide postal services and their number increased to 67 in 2002, reaching 114 in November 2003.
The services provided by the 114 companies currently on the market can be divided into two categories: services with or without added value. As regards the value-added services, 98 companies provide courier services, 15 – direct mail, one company provides national post services and one financial-post services. In the case of the services without added value, 91 companies provide courier services, 8 – direct mail, one company provides national post services and one – financial-post services.
With regard to the postal traffic, in 2002 89.3% of the volume of activity was represented by the domestic postal items, 1.7% by domestic packages, 8.8% by cross-border postal items, and nearly 0.2% by cross-border packages.
The Pre-accession Committee is a body of the regulatory authorities within the postal services sector of the candidate countries to the European Union, founded at the initiative of CERP, with the support of the European Commission (EC), the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the Organization of Public Postal Operators (PostEurop). The Pre-accession Committee Forum is held biannually, with the occasion of the CERP Plenary. This year, Romania hosts the second CERP plenary.
The CERP President, Jean-Luc Dutordoit, the representatives of the European Commission and of the regulatory authorities from the state members and candidate countries took part in the debates of the Pre-accession Committee Forum.