A steering committee addressed Tuesday a legal conundrum which has for many years led to postal services being kept running while under-utilized in some areas of the country, while they are over-taxed in more populous locations such as Tallinn. The proposed rationalization will reportedly not spell post office closures, however.
The group, consisting of representatives of state-owned postal carrier Omniva/Eesti Post, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Competition Authority (Konkurentsiamet), found that postal service availability should be measured by its supported and supporting populace, rather than by number and density of post offices.
The working party also agreed that no distinction would be made between staffed post offices and parcel machines, as had been the case up to now.
Controversy has arisen between state-owned mail service Eesti Post and an organization representing private media companies in Estonia over newspaper and magazine delivery prices. While Eesti Post says that declining volumes require higher delivery prices, media firms are asking for a price freeze for several years.
A delivery price increase of 8.7 percent has been agreed for 2021, far in excess of what the Estonian Association of Media Enterprises (EML) wants, i.e. zero increase. At the same time, current law requires a minimum of one periodical delivery per day, six days a week, in order to keep those in outlying areas informed in particular, as well as the elderly, who are assumed by nearly all concerned as unable to obtain news online, meaning an impasse has been reached.