On 1 July the European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP) held its 10^th Plenary meeting in Bulgaria, under the chairmanship of Veselin Bozhkov PhD, Chairman of the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC).

 

During the Plenary meeting, the ERGP members took note of the progress in the implementation of the work programmes of all sub-groups. All activities of the sub-groups are in compliance with the Project Requirement Documents.

 

The ERGP Members also took a decision to amend the ERGP Rules of Procedure with regard to the electronic voting procedure which from now on will be preceded by a comments round.

 

The proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on cross-border parcel delivery services [COM(2016)285final] was discussed in-depth, particularly as it will require input from the NRAs and therefore have an immediate impact on the ERGP work programme.

 

Furthermore, ERGP Members also started the preparation for the work of the ERGP for the next year.The Plenary meeting was preceded by an open Stakeholder Workshop. This Workshop focused on a discussion paper on the elaboration of a Medium Term Strategy “On the directions for the ERGP’s future work for the period 2017-2019” that had been subject to public consultation. It is the first time since the establishment of ERGP in 2010 that such a forward looking document on ERGP’s main priorities in the next 3 years has been prepared. More than 110 participants, representatives of over 30 European regulators, postal operators and organizations engaged in the postal services sector discussed the opinions presented and the issues raised by the discussion document. The findings of this workshop together with the views presented by the stakeholders will serve as an important input for the final elaboration of the ERGP Medium Term Strategy.

 

About ERGP

 

The ERGP is composed of the 28 national regulatory authorities (NRAs) for postal services of the EU, as well as national regulatory authorities from countries of the European Economic Area and countries with candidate status to join the EU.

 

The ERGP’s tasks are to advise and assist the European Commission in consolidating the internal market for postal services or any other matter related to postal services within its competence.

 

 Furthermore, the ERGP is advising on and assisting the Commission with the development of the internal market for postal services and as to the consistent application in all Member States of the regulatory framework for postal services.