V J Cushing and R J Ayton argue (Letters, March 5) that EU directives have forced Britain to close rural post offices. But the closure of our post offices is not the work of the EU. It is the result of our own Government's determination, right or wrong, to make the Post Office more commercial.

Many non-postal responsibilities have been taken away from rural post offices, which has reduced their income. The smallest post offices must close, the Government says, to make the remainder viable.

The two EU directives to which V J Cushing and R J Ayton refer are about postal services, not post offices. Together with a third directive (2008/06/EC) these documents record the agreement of all the EU's members, including the UK, to move towards a 'gradual and controlled opening' (in the words of our own Department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, formerly the DTI) of postal services.

This agreement has not been forced upon us. It is entirely consistent with British Government policy. Our own democratically elected Governments, Conservative and Labour, have campaigned energetically for the liberalisation of postal services throughout Europe, which they see as a step towards the completion of the Single Market.

Those who need further evidence of the present Government's determination to liberalise postal services need look no further than the controversial proposal to sell 40 per cent of the Royal Mail to a private company. This proposal has nothing to do with the EU.

So far from showing the powerlessness of our elected representatives in Europe, the EU's agreements on postal services illustrate their strength.

With the support of the Commission, British ministers successfully persuaded their counterparts from other EU countries that the liberalisation of postal services was desirable. V J Cushing, R J Ayton and many of your readers, myself included, may not like the result, but that's democracy! We can hardly blame our partners in the EU for agreeing to introduce reforms which we ourselves have pressed upon them.

Nor can we accuse the EU of telling us what to do. It has no power to impose rules on us against our will, on postal services or on any other important subject.

Christopher Denne

Churchtown Farm,

Sydenham Damerel