Liberalisation of the postal market

The European Union started a process of gradual reform of the postal market in the 1990s. The Postal Directive adopted in 1997 and its amendments in 2002 and 2008 will achieve full market opening for postal services by 31 December 2010 or, for eleven Member States, by 31 December 2012. Six Member States have already fully liberalised their markets. Although not imposed by the Postal Directive, many Member States also combined their national postal market liberalisation with the transformation of the state-owned post operator into independent, some-times privatised, legal entities.