The Universal Postal Union (UPU) is the UN body which governs the exchange of post at international level. The World Blind Union is a member of the UPU's Consultative Committee. Through this forum, we are calling for the modernisation of the rules on the free postal service for blind and partially sighted people which appear in the UPU's Convention. We are asking for the exemption to explicitly cover the mailing of items such as white canes, computer disks and so on. At present the text refers vaguely to "literature".
As often at international level, campaigns move slowly. We worked intensively with the World Blind Union and many postal operators from across the world, to try to gain agreement for the implementation of these changes to the Convention at the UPU Congress, which took place in July 2008 in Geneva. P&T Luxembourg tabled a proposal to this effect. However, the Congress committee which examined the Luxembourg proposal voted to refer it to the UPU's "Council of Administration" (CA) for "further studies". Though we were disappointed with this decision, we will continue our work with the UPU until we have achieved the modernisation of the rules that we are seeking. The CA meets at the UPU's headquarters in Berne, Switzerland, in the autumn of 2009, and we will attend this meeting to put our case.
Postal Services
In 2008 the European Union finished revising the Postal Services Directive. This directive provides for the opening up of postal services in the EU to full competition. We feared that at least in some European countries the pressure from competition would erode or threaten the free postal service so valued by many blind and partially sighted people. The directive allows but does not guarantee free postal services for blind and partially sighted people.
In January 2008, the RNIB Campaigns team led European Blind Union efforts to try to get the European Parliament to reinstate the two amendments to this directive that it adopted at First Reading, which would have guaranteed the future of the free postal service for blind and partially sighted people in the EU.
At Second Reading the rules require a larger number of MEPs to support any amendments in order for them to go through. In fact 393 of the total number of 755 must vote in favour of an amendment for it to be adopted at this stage.
In the end the vote on the amendment to strengthen the wording in Article 1 was lost by 298 for to 335 against. This amendment read as follows:
"Member States shall ensure the provision of a free postal service for the use of blind and partially sighted persons."
However, in something of a moral victory, we actually won the vote on the other amendment, a recital, by one vote: 321 for to 320 against.
The proposed wording for the recital was:
"Given the importance of postal services for blind and partially sighted persons, it is appropriate to confirm that in a competitive and liberalised market there should be an obligation to supply free services for blind and partially sighted persons introduced by the Member States.
Sadly, given the need for 393 votes to pass the amendment, this was still not sufficient to get it into the directive.
The final directive continues to permit but not guarantee the provision of the free postal service.
However, the Postal Services Act currently safeguards the UK's free postal service. Furthermore, towards the end of 2007 the Campaigns team sought and obtained written assurance from government ministers that the service will continue to be protected now that the European postal market will be fully opened to competition.
We worked recently to ensure that the Postal Services Bill, which has now stalled in Parliament at time of writing (1 September 2009), adequately protects the "Articles for the Blind" scheme.
Get involved!
Would you like to campaign on European issues? If you are interested in how the EU affects you and your day to day life, contact the Campaigns team at campaign@rnib.org.uk or through the campaigns hotline on 020 7391 2123.