Brussels, 30/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - During the first exchange of views on the sensitive strands of the fourth railway package related to the opening up of the domestic passenger market and governance on Thursday 30 May, MEPs from the European Parliament's transport committee warned against the dangers of railway sector separation, which they argued would impede efforts to improve the service.
Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium) and Mathieu Grosch (EPP, Belgium) will be working together on opening up the domestic railway passenger market to competition in an effort to align it with liberalisation of the international and freight markets. The former will focus on railway operator governance structures and the latter will be looking at amendments to the rules for allocating public service contracts.
In general terms, El Khadraoui asserted that “liberalisation should not be an aim in itself” and that “an ideological vision could lead to confusion and chaos”. Referring only indirectly to mentioned the model of governance that separates infrastructure managers from service operators, as advocated by the Commission, he highlighted the need for flexibility of structure, as long as the important principle of not allowing multiple financing is maintained. Karim Zébiri (Greens/France) announced his intention to introduce greater flexibility into the Commission proposal in this field, without opposing the integrated or separated models, so that member states can organise themselves as they wish. Georges Bach (EPP, Luxembourg) said that he was disappointed by the Commission proposal on this subject, which he said was still not fully developed. He would have preferred other possibilities given the different railway systems and highlighted the problem of subsidiarity. Isabelle Durant (Greens, Belgium) also emphasised the need to avoid imposing a one size fits all model.
At this stage, what is primarily pushing MEPs' fears is the fragmentation resulting from the need to put railway contracts out to tender, thus ending direct public transport railway contract allocations, as stipulated in the Commission proposal. Durant regretted that the calls for tender system would lead to a fragmented railway service. Bach warned that “some networks are working very well and they should not be split up for ideological reasons”. As summed up by Olga Sehnalova (S&D, Czech Republic), separation is not a guarantee of greater efficiency. Grosch supported the position of many of his colleagues, which said that fragmentation is not a good thing for large or small concerns and that flexibility has to be shown in this respect.
Given the heated reaction created by these two sections in the railway package, Durant suggested a thorough look the technical aspects (see EUROPE n° 10854), “leaving time for the recast of the first railway package to bed in, and to come back with a more appropriately adapted package”. (MD/transl.fl)