In addition to direct collection via postal current accounts, PI also raises funds indirectly via the placement of postal savings books and savings certificates on behalf of CDP.

(f) Clear rules on competition law and state aids are another important element in an operational postal market.

The Commission can assure the honourable Member that on all aspects of the postal reform in the European Union, including both the issues mentioned, it will try its best to strike the right balance between the necessary degree of harmonisation at EU level and those conditions to be fixed at Member State level, which would reflect the very different characteristics of each national postal market.

The Belgian Presidency – Mr Sterckx referred to the presidency of the country of which he is a citizen- the Belgian presidency has found a good compromise which successfully meets a triple challenge: firstly, to reconcile divided Member States around a common approach; secondly, to largely reflect the European Parliament's position from the first reading – Mr Simpson enumerated the five points of which he said four-and-a-half were achieved by Parliament; and thirdly to gain wide endorsement from the industry stakeholders, including unanimous support from the 15 incumbent postal operators.

(39) Whereas, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the universal service and to ensure undistorted competition in the non-reserved sector, it is important to separate the functions of the regulator, on the one hand, and the operator, on the other; whereas no postal operator may be both judge and interested party; whereas it is for the Member State to define the statute of one or more national regulatory authorities, which may be chosen from public authorities or independent entities appointed for that purpose;

Rural mail carriers deliver mail to approximately 843,000 stops through roadside rural boxes, but our rural mail carriers, and there are about 6,600 of them across the country, deliver mail in a variety of ways, not just to the rural box at the end of the lot line, but also to other collective forms of delivery to post offices, community mail boxes, and the green boxes that many of you have seen in cottage property areas, for example.