The Agency for Communications Networks and Services of the Republic of Slovenia publishes an explanatory note on the public responses to the draft General Act on the quality of universal postal service provision, which it published on its website in the course of the public consultation procedure. The draft regulation is still in the public consultation process, which means that the provisions are not yet final. The interested public has the opportunity to comment and make suggestions on the proposed solutions, which is the essence of the public consultation. Following the public consultation, the Agency will consider the comments received in a rigorous manner, make them public and take them into account in a meaningful way in the preparation of the final text.
The Agency explains that the proposed amendments to the General Act follow some of the current developments on the postal services market, while the Republic of Slovenia, even with the possible introduction of these amendments, maintains one of the highest prescribed levels of quality of the universal postal service in the EU. In accordance with its mandate, the Agency is obliged to follow the principle of ensuring the efficient and high-quality provision of the universal postal service in the Republic of Slovenia.
The General Act governing the quality of the universal postal service has not been amended since 2020. In the meantime, however, there has been a significant decline in the volume of letter mail in the Republic of Slovenia, as well as in most other EU countries. Thus, from 2019 to 2024 alone, the turnover of letter mail has fallen by more than 40%. The costs of universal postal service providers in the EU have remained stable or even increased over this period, which is reflected in an increase in the unit or per item cost for the transmission of increasingly smaller volumes of letter mail.
The Agency's proposed amendments to the General Act thus respond to these changed market conditions, following comparable practices in regulating the quality of the universal service in the rest of the EU. Slovenia and the other EU countries are actively responding to the trends of declining mail volumes, while striving to maintain the quality of the universal service.
With regard to the specific allegations concerning the transmission of mail, the Agency explains that it is not changing the deadlines for the transmission of priority mail, but is adding an extra day for the transmission of non-priority mail. Thus, for priority transmission items, the universal postal service provider will remain obliged to transmit the item within the required time limits, i.e. within three days at the latest from the date of dispatch of the item, excluding the day of dispatch and Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from the transmission time limits. However, the minimum quantity of priority transmission items to be delivered on the first and second days shall be reduced by up to 5 percentage points.
Under the new draft general act, the universal service provider would thus be obliged to transmit the majority, i.e. 95% of all correspondence items, within three working days when transmitting non-priority items, and a requirement is added to ensure that 99% of letter items are transmitted within four working days.
As regards mobile post offices, the Agency points out that they are not new, as they are defined as one of the forms of contact points for direct work with postal service users both in the Postal Services Act (ZPSto-2) and in the current General Act on the Quality of Universal Postal Service Provision, which was issued by the Agency in 2020 on the basis of the ZPSto-2, and have been known to local authorities since 2003. The postal network of the universal postal service provider in 2024 comprised 475 contact points, of which 25 operated as mobile access contact points for the provision of the universal postal service. The mobile post offices are part of the USO's network of contact points and are used for all postal services provided by the USO.
The requirements for their operation would also remain unchanged by the proposal for a new general act: the mobile post office must operate in an appropriate means of transport and be equipped to provide postal users with all the postal services included in the universal postal service of the prescribed quality. The mobile contact point must be located at a place which is fixed and published in advance and its opening hours must be determined by the universal postal service provider. In this respect, the mobile contact points must be open at least five working days a week, for a continuous period of at least one hour each working day, including at least once a week in the afternoon after 4 p.m., in accordance with the provisions of the General Act.
The proposed amendment to the General Act would thus only change the fact that mobile mail, like post or contract mail, could also be taken into account as a criterion for the coverage of the population by contact points through which the universal postal service provider meets the requirements for the provision of the universal postal service under the law.
The Agency adds that, taking into account the market situation, both on the part of providers and end-users, it is always striving to ensure the efficient and high-quality provision of the universal postal service in the Republic of Slovenia.
