Petru Macovei: “In its Final Form, the Law on Post Is Acceptable; We’ll See How it Will Function in Practice.”

On Thursday, March 17, the Parliament adopted in final reading the law on post, which has been renamed to the Law on Postal Services. According to its authors (Ministry of Information Technology and Communications), the law defines technical regulations and notions characterizing modern postal services in conditions of free market. In early February, the Association of Independent Press (AIP) warned in a letter to the leadership of the Parliament and of the Parliamentary Commission on Mass Media that “the draft law on post contravenes the European Directive on postal services.”

The Law on Postal Services takes into consideration the AIP request that public periodicals be recognized as a universal postal service, according to Directive 97/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of December 15, 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of Community postal services and the improvement of quality of service. “Under the new law, books, catalogs, newspapers, periodicals, and postal packages containing merchandise with or without commercial value are POSTAL ITEMS, and postal items have been included into the universal postal service, mandatory for the Post of Moldova State Enterprise. So, here the law has been modified almost as we asked. We’ll see if any problems with post representatives arise during implementation,” said Petru Macovei, AIP executive director.

Another modification proposed by the AIP concerned formation of tariffs for distribution of periodicals. The AIP asked that they be approved by the Government, but the end document stipulates that this task shall be performed by the National Agency for Regulation in Electronic Communications and Information Technology. “In its final form, the law on post is acceptable; we’ll see how it will function in practice,” Petru Macovei concluded.

However, representatives of print media outlets believe that authors should have discussed with editors, too, during development of the law.
Alina Radu, director of “Ziarul de Gardă” newspaper, also believes that “the end document looks a little better than the draft.” “Although the initial version didn’t contain the obligation for the Post of Moldova to distribute publications, the final version included the words ‘distribution of periodicals,’ and it is clear that they will at least have the obligation to distribute newspapers. The law guarantees that the Post of Moldova will conclude contracts with media outlets, but in its 12 years ‘Ziarul de Gardă’ tried to negotiate these contracts, because they contain lots of provisions to the detriment of outlets and economic possibilities, and the post never ensured this dialogue. We fear that there will again be abusive contracts and lack of openness to dialogue. And that means that we have a new law that will not improve the situation,” Alina Radu said.

In the same context, Natalia Hadarca, editor-coordinator of the Chisinau weekly “Evenimentul Zilei,” mentioned: “There is a rumor in our professional community that some newspaper directors were personally summoned to Post of Moldova in order to negotiate distribution tariffs. It isn’t difficult to analyze and see who might benefit from preferential prices. The representatives of ‘Comunistul’ newspaper, for example, were the first to accept all the conditions set by the Post of Moldova. But not all newspapers have the same possibilities as party publications. In such conditions, the path set by the Post of Moldova, ‘with good intentions,’ leads directly to hell. That is, to bankruptcy. And elected officials did nothing but support this thing.”

The adoption of the Law on Postal Services is part of the national action plan on implementation of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement, which aims at ensuring compliance of the national legislation with European standards on quality.