Brussels, 17/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 15 June, at second reading, the European Parliament adopted the report by Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, Romania) on the draft regulation relating to the rail network for competitive freight. The vote seals the agreement reached on this subject with the Council and reintroduces one-stop shops into the text. These are responsible for the management of slots for rail corridors, and are strongly defended by MEPs and the European Commission.
As approved, the compromise - negotiated during a trilogue between Parliament, Council and European Commission - aims to optimise the use of the rail network and, in particular, to facilitate the flow of trains carrying goods along the main international rail routes (EUROPE 9525). It will be up to member states to establish international freight corridors which will form a European network for competitive freight. As recommended by the Council (EUROPE 9919), the regulation provides a list of nine initial corridors, which should be set up from three to five years after entry into force of the regulation in question. The states not included in this list but having a rail frontier with another country (Estonia, Latvia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland) should take part in the setting up of at least one corridor. Corridors should comply to criteria defined by the compromise, including that of crossing the territory of at least three member states (or two, if the distance between rail terminals is above 500 km), and be coherent with the trans-European transport network, European Railway Traffic Management System (ERTMS) corridors and corridors defined by RailNetEurope. Each corridor will have an executive committee responsible for defining the general objectives of the corridor (set in place by the member states) and a management committee (set in place by the infrastructure managers) responsible among other things for the organisational structure of the corridor. According to the compromise found, this committee may be a legally independent entity. It should also establish an advisory group composed of the rail companies interested in using the corridor. The same committee would also be responsible for setting up the one-stop shop for management (information, allocation) of capacity requests (slots). The compromise gives this one-stop shop the power to make decisions on the allocation of requests concerning rapid freight slots (pre-determined international slots, attributed as a priority to facilitate the goods transport), and capacity reserve for goods trains. As the Parliament hoped, the candidates authorised (loaders, forwarding agents, combined transport operators), other than the rail companies, will be entitled to request pre-determined slots. The CER (Community of European Railways) has cast doubt on this last measure which, it says, penalises rail companies. It has also said that the decision-making power granted to the one-stop shop could complicate relations between the authorities of these one-stop shops and the national rail infrastructure managers without really facilitating train traffic. The EIM (European infrastructure management) association has said, on the contrary, that this was a step forward and that the one-stop shop could become a true corridor manager. The SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français) also welcomed the adoption of the report, as well as the creation of the one-stop shop which, according to its permanent representative with the EU, Jean-Michel Dancoine, symbolises the “European perspective”. (A.By./transl.jl)