Nov 11, 2026

Thank you for the invitation to participate in your seventh “Save Our Posts” conference. I accepted your invitation with genuine pleasure because, in the past, I signed several collective agreements for the female and male workers of the Italian Post when the Post was state-owned. Now I represent Ferpa, the European Federation of Retired and Elderly People, with 42 affiliated national trade union organizations present in 24 European countries, and among the millions of pensioners registered in these organizations, there are also former postal workers.

Based on my experience in the sector, before going into the details of the consequences caused by the closure of post offices and cuts to delivery days on the elderly population in Europe, I would like to point out that FERPA also closely follows what happens among the older workers in the postal sector. Many older postal workers are facing the consequences of restructuring: outsourcing, reduction of permanent staff, replacing stable workers with temporary ones, subcontracted agreements, without considering that this is a workforce that has given decades of service to European communities.

These workers, when they retire, find themselves with lower pensions due to the economic and working conditions they have been subjected to in their final years of work. So, FERPA shares your demands on employment standards not only to protect young people but also for the older generations.

Now, moving on to the impact retirees face following the reduction of postal services, as FERPA, we are deeply concerned about the trend the postal sector is taking due to full liberalization in this area.

It’s clear that evidence shows service providers, under increasing financial pressure, are reducing delivery frequency, cutting the number of active post offices, and concentrating collection points. We see the postal network that elderly citizens rely on quietly being dismantled, post offices disappearing, and delivery days decreasing in small towns and rural areas.

Europe is aging, and postal services are an essential service for retirees and elderly people, who make up 25% of the population in Europe. They’re among the citizens who use postal services the most in every location, even the most remote ones, and they are the first to experience major inconvenience when post offices close and delivery days are cut. Poorly regulated competition in postal services can leave small communities without adequate service, undermining connectivity and territorial cohesion.

This demographic reality must be at the center of any serious discussion about postal delivery services. Because as populations age, their reliance on these reliable and accessible universal services is increasing, not decreasing.

The foundation of postal services must be the public good, ensuring access to a reliable, widespread, and affordable delivery service for every citizen of any age, business, and community, especially for the most disadvantaged people like low-income families, people with disabilities, retirees, and the elderly.

It is clear that the current trend toward privatization and commercialization threatens this service, with consequences that will fall most heavily on the most vulnerable.

At the EU level, at the very least, strict minimum requirements are needed to prevent market forces from concentrating services in the most profitable urban areas, without considering that delivery Mail and parcel services are available everywhere, and besides being an essential service, they go beyond just delivering mail.

They also serve as a way for isolated people, due to age or disability, to socialize, since these users often interact only with postal workers over days, weeks, or months.

Postal services are crucial for the most vulnerable groups in the population, in line with the social mission of universal public services, because they ensure the delivery of essential medical supplies, food, pensions, pension statements, prescriptions, official correspondence, news, and communications, even if digital systems fail.

Keep in mind that retirees and older people often aren’t very familiar with new technologies, which puts them at a particular disadvantage compared to the rest of the population. FERPA emphasizes that people whoever they represent have the right to a universal service such as the possibility of receiving a package at home, at an affordable price, with a reliable schedule, to any urban, rural, or remote address, recognizing that this service is not only a convenience for these people but also has social value.

The universal service obligation ensures that no citizen is left behind, therefore, the service must also accommodate people who, due to age and physical conditions, are unable to travel to pick up their own packages.

FERPA supports your action against cuts to postal services, and together we can claim the crucial role of postal services in promoting social and territorial cohesion, particularly by helping to break the isolation of the most disadvantaged people and the elderly, who are increasingly ignored or neglected by those who govern us.

We must claim that all companies operating In this sector, delivery operators, express couriers, logistics aggregators, and delivery service providers must help make the postal service efficient and widespread and accessible to everyone, avoiding the sole pursuit of grabbing the most profitable urban routes for themselves.

According to FERPA, territorial cohesion cannot be guaranteed if only competition aimed at profit and market prices is considered. This profit-driven view leads to social divisions and exclusions among people, harming the most disadvantaged or elderly, who often lack sufficient financial resources, and among these people, there is often a lot of poverty.

In this sector, the concept of solidarity requires fair contributions from all actors in the postal chain, also ensuring fair and quality working standards, equal conditions, and funding capable of guaranteeing universal access.

To conclude my contribution, FERPA considers it essential to support the goal of a Europe where postal delivery services serve the common good. Therefore, a European directive on delivery services is needed that involves all operators, so that the service is explicitly recognized as a social infrastructure. Any changes to service frequency or network configuration must be evaluated based on their impact on the population, especially the elderly and vulnerable, and should not be left to the discretion of operators whose only goal is to optimize their profitability.

Finally, FERPA and its affiliates, who have contributed through their struggles to building a social and inclusive Europe, claim the right of older and retired people to live and age with dignity and, for this reason, ask, together with you, for an essential universal postal service.

 

Thank you.