Brussels, 04/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 3 October, the Court of Justice ruled (case C-369/11) that Italy has failed to comply with EU law (Directives 91/440/EEC and subsequent amendments and 2001/14/EC implementing liberalisation of rail transport in the EU) by not ensuring the independence of the railway infrastructure manager.
On this point, it finds for the European Commission which, as part of a number of actions for failure to fulfil obligations brought against several member states, found that the Italian state had imposed on Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI, the infrastructure manager responsible for the calculation of the charges for network access for each operator and for the collection of those charges) tariffs set by the minister responsible, when, under the terms of the above mentioned directives, these tariffs should be set independently by the RFI and monitored by an independent body, the Ufficio per la Regolazione dei Servizi Ferroviari (Office for the regulation of railway services, URSF).
The Court notes that that one of the objectives pursued by European Union law is to ensure the management independence of the infrastructure manager through the charging system. The charging and capacity-allocation schemes should encourage railway infrastructure managers to optimise use of the infrastructure within the framework established by the member states. Their role cannot therefore be confined to calculating the amount of the charge in each individual case, applying a formula established in advance by ministerial order. Italian rules, however, provide that the manager is bound by the calculation of the charge, which is fixed in collaboration with the minister. Although the minister merely ensures compliance with legal requirements, the check of lawfulness should be carried out by the regulatory body, in this case the URSF. The Court infers therefrom that the Italian legislation does not ensure the infrastructure manager's independence.
However, the Court did not rule in favour of the commission complaint that the Italian legislation does not comply with the requirement of independence of the regulatory body, because the URSF consists of officials of the ministry and the ministry continues to have influence over the Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) group, which owns Trenitalia, Italy's main rail operator.
It notes that the Italian authorities have gradually redefined the organisational and accounting independence of the URSF and observes that, under the directive, the regulatory body may be the ministry responsible for transport. Accordingly the Commission may not rely solely on the fact that the URSF is part of that ministry in order to conclude that it is not independent. (FG/transl.fl)