[PIO] 25th Plenary Session of the European Regulators' Group for Postal Services (ERGP)

The European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP) held its second Plenary for 2023, chaired by Mr. The European Regulators for Postal Services (ERGPG) held its 2023 General Assembly under the chairmanship of Petros Galides, Assistant Commissioner for Communications of Cyprus (GERET), with the support of Dr Spyros Pantelis, Vice President of the Hellenic Telecommunications and Postal Commission (EETT), and Ms Emma Maraschin, Head of the Postal Services Unit of the Swedish Postal and Telecommunications Authority (PTS) on behalf of Mr Dan Sjöblom, Director General of PTS.

The Plenary agreed on the ERGP Work Programme for 2024 [ERGP PL II (23) 4], which defines the ERGP projects for the coming year according to the strategic pillars of the ERGP Medium Term Strategy (MTS) 2023-2025: (1) reviewing the postal sector and its regulatory framework in the light of environmental sustainability and digitalisation; (2) promoting a competitive single European Union (EU) postal market in the context of increasing e-commerce deliveries; and (3) empowering end-users and ensuring a user-oriented universal service.

In 2024 the ERGP will focus its activities on the outline of the future regulatory framework, the needs of vulnerable users for postal services, the regulation of end-user pricing, access to infrastructure for parcel delivery, exploring possibilities to support environmental sustainability in the context of the regulatory framework and key indicators for postal services, as well as on quality of service, consumer protection and complaints management.

During the period from 2024 to 2024 the ERGP will focus on the outline of the future regulatory framework, the needs of vulnerable users for postal services, the regulation of end-user pricing, access to infrastructure for parcel delivery, the exploration of possibilities to support environmental sustainability in the context of the regulatory framework and key indicators for postal services, as well as on quality of service, consumer protection and complaints management. Plenary expressed its solidarity with Ukraine and its concern about the destruction of postal infrastructure and especially the loss of human lives, and once again encouraged EU postal operators to assist Ukrainian operators in their efforts to facilitate the delivery of parcels and postal communication with people in Ukraine.

The plenary adopted the following documents:

1. ERGP PL II (23) 6 - ERGP Report on the powers of national regulatory authorities,
2. ERGP PL II (23) 8 - ERGP Report on the impact of modernisation/adaptation of the universal service,
3. ERGP PL II (23) 9 - ERGP Report on quality of service, consumer protection and consumer handling,
4. ERGP PL II (23) 10 - ERGP Report on key indicators of postal services,
5. ERGP PL II (23) 12 - ERGP Report on environmental sustainability practices in the postal sector.

The day before the Plenary Session, on 23 November, the ERGP organised a workshop for discussion among stakeholders on "How to raise awareness of environmental sustainability/sustainability among users of Postal Services". Postal operators, postal industry experts and consumer organisations, recognising the urgent need to address the targets set by the Green Deal, shared their experiences and recommendations to further promote user empowerment and awareness on environmental sustainability in the postal sector, followed by a constructive exchange of views and discussion among the participants. The discussion feeds into the ERGP's report on exploring opportunities to support environmental sustainability in the postal regulatory framework, which the ERGP will produce next year.

1. For more information, visit the page: https:/ec.europa.eu/ergp.
2. Contact: GROW-ERGP@ec.europa.eu.
3. Follow us: https:/www.linkedin.com/company/ergp-the-european-regulators-group-for-postal-services/./

About ERGP

The ERGP (European Regulators' Group for Postal Services) is composed of the 27 EU National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) for postal services, as well as the national regulatory authorities of the European Economic Area countries and EU candidate countries. The ERGP advises and assists the European Commission on the development of the internal market for postal services and on the consistent application in all Member States of the regulatory framework for postal services.

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