EU threat over Slovakia mail

Brussels is threatening to use some its strongest powers to force Slovakia to overturn a law which would reinforce the country's state-owned postal monopoly.

Competition officials at the European Commission said on Wednesday that they had begun formal proceedings against the Slovak Republic over a law change which came into effect in February and extends the monopoly held by Slovenska Posta to so-called "hybrid mail" services.

These are used mainly by banks, insurance companies, utilities and the like, and involve the sender transferring letters or communications to a third party operator, who prints and delivers the mail. Such services are typically used for very large quantities of standardized post, such as invoices.

The commission claims that these services had previously been open to competition in Slovakia before February, and that several private companies had entered the market. Their viability, it says, is now at risk.

"An activity which had been successfully liberalized should not be re-monopolised for the benefit of the incumbant operator," Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner, said on Wednesday as she urged the government to suspend the new law "to prevent serious and irreparable harm to competition".

Ms Kroes had been due to discuss the matter with Slovakia's prime minister in the course of a visit to the country last week, but the meeting had to be abandoned.

The procedures which the Commission is applying in this case are rarely used but powerful, and could ultimately result in Brussels declaring the new law illegal.

In that case, Slovakia would be forced to amend it, removing the new restrictions. The government now has two weeks to "provide observations" on Brussels' request that the law be suspended and a month to respond generally.