of its shareholding in MaltaPost to Lombard Bank, which effectively became the majority shareholder in the company with 60% shareholding. The other 40% were sold to the public in January 2008. Malta entered the European Union (EU) in 2004, and since then there have been significant changes in the legislation which regulates Malta's postal services. The mail distribution system was also restructured, and in 2007 MaltaPost changed the country's postcodes. As required by EU legislation, the postal services sector was liberalised on 1 January 2013, allowing other entities apart from MaltaPost to provide postal services in the country. As of 2020, MaltaPost remains Malta's only Universal Service Provider of postal services. Apart from transporting mail and other standard postal activities, the company's post offices also provide services such as payments of bills and the sale of stationery. On 17 June 2016, MaltaPost opened the Malta Postal Museum in Valletta. Postage stamps Use of British stamps in Malta (1857–1884) Between 1855 and 1856, some mail sent by British military personnel during the Crimean War which was franked with British stamps was cancelled with a wavy lines grid postmark at Malta. British postage stamps became available to the general public in Malta on 18 August 1857 and they remained valid until 31 December 1884. These can be identified by coded postal obliterators reading M or A25, which were introduced in 1857 and 1859 respectively. The M postmark was withdrawn by early 1861 and a number of different A25 postmarks remained in use until 1904. Most contemporary British stamps with face values up to 10/- can be found used in Malta. These include line-engraved issues such as the Halfpenny Rose Red, Penny Red, Three Halfpence Red and Two Pence Blue, the embossed stamps and surface-printed issues such as the Penny Venetian Red, Penny Lilac and the 1883–1884 Lilac and Green issue. Some British postal fiscals also exist used in Malta. Malta stamps under British rule (1860–1964) Queen Victoria and King Edward VII definitives (1860–1911) Malta's first postage stamp, the Halfpenny Yellow, was issued on 1 December 1860. It was only valid for local letters, and British stamps had to be used for mail addressed to foreign destinations. The stamp was printed by De La Rue initially on blued unwatermarked paper. It was reprinted 29 times over the course of over two decades, resulting in stamps from the printings having differences in the colour