Strasbourg, 24/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - Heels are being dug in as the plenary vote of the European Parliament on the fourth railway package approaches (Wednesday 26 February): the unions are threatening to take to the streets and the Community of European Railway (CER), which was behind many of the amendments in favour of the incumbent operators, is piling the pressure on the MEPs.
The European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) mobilised no fewer than 15 national delegations to demonstrate outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday for 25 February, on the eve of the vote. The unions are concerned by the liberalisation of domestic passenger transport provided for in the package. In the view of Sabine Trier, Deputy Secretary General of the European union association, the package fails to take account of the social impact of competition. On these grounds, it is felt to be unacceptable.
Dominant operators argue for flexibility. The CER, which represents the interests of the incumbent railway operators, is also bringing pressure to bear, particularly on the political plank of the package regarding railway governance. The association calls on the MEPs to support a number of amendments which have been tabled but which compromise the balanced text defended by rapporteur Saïd El Khadraoui (S&D, Belgium), as adopted by the committee on transport of the EP in late 2013. The compromise allows railway holdings to be kept in place, thanks to a clear separation of railway entities and a bolstering of the control authority. The CER is calling for even greater flexibility, to allow the governance models to take account of specific national characteristics. The text should allow the member states a real choice between separated or integrated models, the association argues through the media. However, the rapporteur feels that opening domestic passenger transport up to competition can only be possible under extremely clear operating conditions. The groups are expected to decide on their voting strategy at the end of the day on Tuesday, following the debate. It is expected that voting will go along national lines. (MD/transl.fl)