Paris (AFP)

Fewer letters and therefore more aid: the State has planned to pay La Poste at least 500 million euros each year to compensate for the deficit in the universal postal service, while the French use nine times less "red stamps" than in 2008.

The mission of "guaranteeing a universal postal service of quality", for a long time profitable, has cost La Poste money since 2018. Faced with the hole, which widened to 1.3 billion euros last year, a annual budget allocation, which should vary between "500 and 520 million euros", will be paid from 2022, the government announced Thursday.

The financial balance of the universal postal service "is now structurally degraded", justified the government in a press release published at the end of a meeting of the high-level monitoring committee of the business contract between the State and La Poste, chaired by Prime Minister Jean Castex.

The traditional mail business suffered in particular from the health crisis in 2020, with a 13% drop in turnover over one year and volumes down 18%, i.e. 1.6 billion fewer letters.

The 29% increase in classic parcel volumes (Colissimo) was not enough to cushion this drop.

In 2020, each household sent an average of five D + 1 letters, the "red stamps", against 45 in 2008, illustrated the former deputy of Lot Jean Launay in a report submitted in May, which proposed in particular to tax operators telecommunications and digging into the state budget to make up for the universal service deficit.

Because the deficit on these basic services imposed by law, such as the collection and delivery of mail six days a week, threatens to weigh on the other activities of the group, subject to competition, including logistics and banking.

The planned allocation must still be "declared compatible by the European Commission," the statement said.

- "Two-speed" service -

The La Poste group welcomed in a statement to AFP an "important decision" which will allow it to "continue and amplify its transformation effort".

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The government has also announced its support for "changes in the universal postal service recommended by Jean Launay" for 2023, in particular a range "centered on an offer on D + 3" instead of D + 2.

This policy must be developed "by the end of 2022", before the new company contract to be signed with the State for 2023-2028, in order to save money.

These guidelines risk resulting in "job losses" both on mail delivery platforms and among postal workers, was concerned with AFP Marie Vairon, federal secretary of SUD-PTT, present in the meeting.

The abandonment of mail delivery in two days, combined with the increase in the price of stamps, will also "create a two-speed service," she said.

In addition, the government said it was "ready to maintain" the allocation of 174 million euros for La Poste's regional development mission but wants the negotiation of the next contract for the period 2023-2025 to begin "as soon as possible. the next weeks".

© 2021 AFP