An Analysis of the Transformation of Universal Service and Reserved Area in Postal Sector Competition Policies in the European Union

The postal sector has suffered an intense process of transformation oriented towards creating a competitive frame in the European Union (EU). Being considered of general interest in the European Directives, these define and delimit universal postal services (ups) and impose universal service obligations (uso). The first problem is financing the uso, solved through the allocation of a reserved scope or a compensating fund for the operator. Like each member state presents its peculiarities from the starting point and throughout the whole process, the effects of opening up of the postal market can be very different. This work analyses the funding alternatives of the us problem digging deeper into EU case, where some normative steps have been taken, both regarding the financing of the UPS and the regulation of access to the network.