The Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC) has approved a new methodology for calculating the net cost of the Universal Postal Service (SPU), which is designed to be more efficient and economically reasonable.

The SPU ensures the provision of essential postal services across Spain, including national and cross-border mail, and is operated by Correos, which receives compensation for these services.

Previous methodologies faced issues, as highlighted in various CNMC reports, particularly their inability to extend beyond the year 2020. The new proposal aims to resolve these issues and is applicable from 2021 onwards.

This new approach incorporates best practices from Europe and focuses on profitability costs, calculating the net cost as the difference between the actual costs incurred by Correos and a hypothetical scenario without public service obligations.

Additionally, the methodology considers intangible benefits such as brand reputation and allows for automatic updates of its parameters based on Correos' accounting data.