CHAPTER 6

Quality of services
Article 16
Member States shall ensure that quality-of-service standards are set and published in relation to universal service in order to guarantee a postal service of good quality.
Quality standards shall focus, in particular, on routing times and on the regularity and reliability of services.
These standards shall be set by:
- the Member States in the case of national services,
- the European Parliament and the Council in the case of intra-Community cross-border services (see Annex II). Future adjustment of these standards to technical progress or market developments shall be made in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 21(2).
Independent performance monitoring shall be carried out at least once a year by external bodies having no links with the universal service providers under standardised conditions to be specified in accordance
with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 21(2) and shall be the subject of reports published at least once a year.
Substituted by Directive 2008/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 amending Directive 97/67/EC with regard to the full accomplishment of the internal market of Community postal services.