Brussels, 04/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - Presenting the competition report 2012 for Deutsch Bahn (DB) to the European Parliament on Tuesday 4 June, Rudiger Grube, DB Chief Executive, did not beat about the bush as he slammed the European Commission's proposals on railway governance contained in the fourth railway package. His speech really struck home among MEPs concerned with the dossier.
The fact that DB competitors had gained 25% of market shares for regional passenger traffic and 28.6% for freight allows Grube to affirm that “given the situation of competition in the German rail transport market, the Commission's ambition to strictly unbundle the integrated railway systems in Europe is completely pointless”. He told the press that competition has nothing to do with the structure of a company, saying one should keep clear of ideology. He welcomes the fact that more and more MEPs are changing their opinion and that it would appear that decoupling is not the solution. Answering the question about whether or not to decouple, the rapporteur on opening up the domestic passenger market in the fourth railway package, Mathieu Grosch (EPP, Belgium) also considered that it was not necessary to fall into dogmatism but that efficiency should take pride of place (in terms of passengers, service provided and the use of taxpayers' money). He advocated flexibility, as did the rapporteur on governance, Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium), who said that the stronger the regulator is, the more flexible one can be, as long as there is no cross subsidisation. On this point, Grube was very pernickety when speaking in Brussels, hammering home that there must be transparency in financial flows in the German railway system, as well as between the state and DB, while adding, “but it is in no way mysterious or secret”. The competition report sets out the figures in order to refute allegations that there is a lack of financial transparency. Grube said DG Move was passing on these claims which are “wrong and must be firmly rejected”. (MD/transl.jl)