Brussels, 31/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 30 May 2013, the European Court of Justice ruled that Poland has failed to meet a number of its obligations under EU Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure.
The directive requires member states to lay down conditions to ensure that the accounts of an infrastructure manager at least balance income from infrastructure charges, surpluses from other commercial activities and state funding on the one hand, and infrastructure expenditure on the other. On 26 October 2010, the Commission brought proceedings before the Court of Justice for a declaration that Poland had failed to fulfil certain obligations under EU law in the area of rail transport, specifically for failing to ensure in good time that the accounts of PLK SA, the infrastructure manager, were in good order; for failing to introduce a system to cut the cost of supply infrastructure and the charges for use of it; and for including in its calculation of minimum charges and infrastructure access the costs that can be viewed as directly covering the use of rail infrastructure.
In its ruling, the Court of Justice rejected the first claim, saying that, if PLK's profit and loss account does not balance, that is not sufficient, in itself, to conclude that Poland has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law. To reach such a conclusion, it would also be necessary to establish that the failure to balance the accounts occurs “under normal business conditions and over a reasonable time period”, but independent management of the railway infrastructure in Poland began only recently (the first state subsidy being granted in 2006) and, although the Polish state has financed PLK, its income has fallen, in part because of the major economic crisis faced by the EU.
The Court of Justice agrees with the second and third complaints, however, ruling that a) Polish legislation on rail transport lays down the objective of reducing expenditure and the level of the charges for use, but: - fails to define the incentive mechanism by which that objective is to be achieved; - does not establish regulatory measures with adequate powers requiring the infrastructure manager to be accountable for its management to a competent authority; - the measures referred to by Poland do not form part of a multi-annual funding agreement, required by EU law ; b) the proportion of the maintenance and traffic management costs representing fixed costs which the manager must bear, even in the absence of train movements, and depreciation, which is determined, not on the basis of the actual wear of the infrastructure attributable to traffic, but with reference to accounting rules, cannot be viewed as being directly incurred as a result of operating the train service. The Court concludes that Poland has failed to fulfil some of its obligations. (FG/transl.fl)