The territorial postal presence contract, which determines the contours of La Poste’s public service mission in its 17,000 branches in France, will have to be cut by 50 million euros this year, the general director of the La Poste group announced on Friday.
“There is a budget cut of 50 million euros of the 160 million decided and that we are going to discuss with the State,” declared Philippe Wahl, on the sidelines of the congress of the Association of Rural Mayors of France in Saint-Julien (Côte-d’ Or), during which he was questioned by an elected official.
“If this cut is made in 2024, it certainly announces a cut in 2025, which means that we will no longer be able to operate municipal postal agencies,” he added, noting that the group “had already incurred many expenses for 2024.” .
“A real drama for the future” of agencies in rural areas
Signed by La Poste, the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) and the State for the period 2023-2025, this territorial postal presence contract, initially accompanied by credits of 177 million euros per year, compensates for the financial losses linked to the presence. of 17,000 postal “contact points” (post offices, municipal and inter-municipal agencies, French Services, etc.) throughout the territory. Thanks to this network, more than 97% of the population is within five kilometers or less than twenty minutes of a postal “contact point.”
But the cost of La Poste’s territorial planning mission is rising faster than the resources allocated to finance it. “This cut was decided, after which we discussed. In rural municipalities there are many municipal postal agencies where La Poste pays part of the salary of municipal employees, so it is a real tragedy for the future of these contact points,” he stressed. Philippe Wahl.
According to the AMF, since the signing of the first postal presence contract in 2008, “more than 2.4 billion euros have been invested in the territories to adapt and modernize the postal presence and support the most vulnerable customers.” “This territorial leveling fund (…) was designed to primarily benefit the areas that need it most, such as rural areas, mountainous areas, priority areas of urban policy and territories beyond the sea,” he specifies. the association.
Source: BFM TV
