Brussels, 18/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Wheeling and dealing was still in full swing the day before the deadline for submitting amendments (19 February) on the fourth railway package. The package will be put to the vote at the European Parliament's plenary session on Wednesday 26 February and consists of no fewer than six reports. It is the report by Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium) on financial governance and market opening, however, that is attracting all the attention.
As far as is possible, El Khadraoui wants to keep the text as it was adopted in the parliamentary committee at the end of December. At the most, he might possibly make some clarifications in the preamble. However, the amendments that were controversial in the committee could well re-surface in the plenary. These mainly concern the structure of railway governance and its financing (Article 7b). In short, El Khadraoui's position - of strengthening the independence of infrastructure managers and service operators without removing the holding structures - is likely to be opposed to that of the Community of European Railways (CER), which wants a degree of flexibility in relations between operators. Amendments could well be submitted supporting this approach - more according to national affinities than by political group (with the Germans, first and foremost, looking to preserve the Deutsche Bahn model).
The section of the report linked to opening the market for domestic passenger transport by rail is not likely to attract a large number of amendments in the end, as the majority of MEPs support liberalisation. However, the opening of the market to competition must be done in the conditions of railway governance, which is why the battle is harder on this chapter.
The report by Mathieu Grosch (EPP, Belgium) on public service contracts as part of liberalisation is also likely to be subjected to various amendments, but this could also be a question of clarification - especially on the principle of reciprocity (amendment 46). (MD/transl.fl)