Plenary Assembly

Top on the agenda of the Plenary Assembly was the Management Board's mid-term strategy review proposal based on feedback from the last Members survey.  Members approved unanimously the proposed amendments to the Association's Statutes and Internal Regulations.

"As the Industry and our Markets evolve, the Association needs to adapt and be ready for future changes. It's been great to experience also this time that members have been united in the support of the development of our Association", stated Jean-Paul Forceville, Chairman of the PostEurop Management Board.

To compliment our evolving strategy, members welcomed the new PostEurop logo.  This new branding will ensure that the PostEurop brand is poised to embrace future activities both in the physical and digital world.  The logo will be implemented as of 1 January 2022.

During a special virtual ceremony, the winners of the PostEurop Innovation award, CSR awards and EUROPA Stamp award were announced. 

"The PostEurop Awards are a recognition of excellence from our members by our postal experts.  We are very proud of all our members and how each year they continue to grow and submit formidable entries", stated Botond Szebeny, PostEurop Secretary General.

Business Forum

Participants returned the following day for the Business Forum.  This year's forum kicked -off on the subject of Sustainability, a growing topic across the globe as awareness on Climate Change issues continue to increase.  Elena Fernandez, Chairwoman of the PostEurop European Union Affairs Committee (EAC) from Correos, and Margaux Meidinger,  Chairwoman of the PostEurop CSR Activities Circle (CSR-C) from Le Groupe La Poste, together with Achim Schröder, Chair of the E-Commerce working group from DPDHL, presented the unified “PostEurop Sustainability Vision” and next steps.  The Sustainability vision will focus on the areas of Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainabilities.  It will serve to support members in taking steps towards becoming more sustainable business.

As winner of the Coups de Coeur Environmental award, Pablo Ciano, Executive Vice-President Corporate Development of Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL) presented the new "DPDHL Sustainability Roadmap" mapping out clear new commitments on their Sustainability strategy and producing green solutions for customers all over the world.  He concluded that "as postal operators, we have a huge collective responsibility towards the environment."

The last years, the postal industry has been experiencing a growing trend in e-commerce with more and more customers purchasing online.  Arno van Bijnen, Member of the PostNL Executive Committee and lead for business units Customer Excellence & Cross-Border Solutions shared  insights on how PostNL manage their customer experience in this growing e-commerce environment.  The pandemic has certainly fuelled the rise of online shopping and the trend is expected to continue as people learn to live with COVID-19. While innovation can help to improve the customer experience, PostNL is also seeing more appreciation from their customers for sustainable products.

Easing into the second part of the forum, David Pilkington, Chairman of the PostEurop Security and Customs Transversal from Royal Mail took participants through the COVID-19 journey and conclusions arising from the three PostEurop surveys. 

"Perhaps one of the biggest conclusions that we can make of our role during the COVID-19 pandemic is that postal service is recognised as a critical infrastructure", highlighted David Pilkington.

Roman Knap, CEO of Ceska Posta and Joseph Gafa, CEO of Malta Post shared their respective experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In both cases, postal operators had to adapt quickly while keeping the health and safety of employees and customers a priority.  New innovation and old ideas can help broaden the postal product offerings.  While there are challenges ahead, postal operators can be prepared to tackle them.

Emerging from the pandemic, UPU's Post4Health initiative based on collaboration with other UN agencies, governments and partners sees a broader and longer-term role for postal operators. Olivier Boussard from the UPU, who has been  coordinating this initiative called for more European postal operators to be involved.

In essence, the postal industry is a dynamic one.  As an Association, the postal community is embracing the change and taking on the challenges along the way, be it regulatory, operational, market and people.  The journey over the last two years has been intensive for members and it has made the community stronger together and poised to tackle the future. 

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About PostEurop
PostEurop represents 53 postal operators in 50 countries and territories around Europe and handles 60 billion items each year.  The industry employs 2 million people, manages 258 million delivery points and accounts for 1% of the GDP. 

 See also

1. PostEurop Corporate Social Responsibility
2. PostEurop Manifesto

For more information, please contact:

Cynthia Wee-Neumann
Communications Manager
T: +2 2 773 11 92 
E: cynthia.wee@posteurop.org