The Council took note of a progress report on a proposal for a Directive amending the current postal Directive 97/67/EC concerning the full accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services.
The report prepared by the German Presidency takes stock of the significant progress achieved so far on key issues such as the common objective of safeguarding a high-quality universal service, the principles for the designation of universal services providers, the rules for granting authorisations to postal service providers, the provision of information about the universal service, access to postal infrastructure and services, tariff principles and transparency of accounts and ensuring complaints procedures for users and postal service providers. In addition, it identifies the main outstanding issues that will need to be addressed in the coming months under the Portuguese Presidency.
The technical work within the Council preparatory bodies will be pursued in the context of the forthcoming inter-institutional deliberations with the European Parliament (co-decision).