Brussels, 31/01/2013 (Agence Europe) - MEPs in the transport and tourism committee got themselves into battle order for their scrutiny of the fourth railway package presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 30 January. They are determined to ensure that rail transport is made more efficient on the basis of the Commission proposals, which were generally greeted quite positively. Liberalisation is at the heart of its concerns and MEPs believe that this should not be allowed to compromise the railways as a public service. Some of them have already identified the social shortcomings as well as the pitfalls in the “ideological dogma” regarding separated governance structures. Modifying the proposal on the basis of national interests also did not go unnoticed by some of them.
The chairperson of the TRAN committee, Brian Simpson (S&D, United Kingdom), summed up the situation and remained cautious about the possible direction negotiations could take. He said that they wanted operators to be able to keep trains moving throughout Europe without technical or administrative barriers. The spokesperson, however, for transport questions in his group, Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium), was unequivocal and stated that opening up the markets would cause a polemic and they would need greater flexibility. He declared that “Commissioner Siim Kallas even postponed the announcement of the fourth railway package in order to respond to German concerns about maintaining the holding system of Deutsche Bahn. We hope that the Commission and the Council will demonstrate greater flexibility in order to meet our concerns regarding the protection of public service obligations! The profitability of certain lines must not signify the neglect of other less profitable railway lines”. He also asked for fair competition in the field of education, training and staff working conditions. His counterpart at the EPP, Mathieu Grosch (Belgium), also appealed for the public service to be safeguarded, as well as jobs on the railways. The Greens will also be paying attention to the social chapter in the liberalisation exercise. Jean-Jacob Bicep (Greens/EFA, France) had already warned that, “without genuine social safeguards, competition between workers could have disastrous repercussions”.
Obviously, MEPs are also waiting to hear from the Commission on the issue of governance. This is because the Commission has largely been in favour of separation between infrastructure managers and operators, whilst tolerating the continued existence of holding companies. This is a dangerous balancing act. Green MEP Isabelle Durant, the former Belgian minister for transport, criticised this glaring contradiction: “By finally allowing holding companies to continue to exist, the European Commission is creating the impression of performing a rather less dogmatic about turn. This seems to suggest that it will continue to confuse non-discrimination and short-sighted management in a sector which, in reality, will be unable to move towards a genuine systemic kind of management”. French Christian Democrat, Dominique Riquet, regretted “certain restrictions in the proposals, deriving from national concerns, which contradict the coherence of these provisions”. Nonetheless, the Greens and Liberals do at least appear satisfied with the financial separation that the Commission is aiming to definitively introduce. Gésine Meissner (ALDE, Germany) said that “the profits generated by infrastructure and subsidised by public money must be exclusively reinvested in infrastructure”. Michael Cramer (Greens/Germany) is also encouraging the Commission to “prevent companies that do not respect these requirements from entering foreign passenger markets”. MEPs are not going to go over the issue of independent infrastructure managers again, guaranteed enlargement of their functions is not expected to create too much polemic.
The third chapter in the railway reform is an area where most consensus exists. All MEPs welcomed the strengthening of the European Railway Agency. (MD/transl.fl)