Brussels, 31/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 28 March, the European Commission decided to take Austria and Italy to the European Court of Justice because they have only partially transposed European rules on the railways into their respective national legislations.
Austria has only partially implemented the European directive on railway safety (2004/49/EC) that should have been applied since 2006. The country's safety authority has been unable to review the safety certificates and the independence of the body investigating accidents and incidents on the railways cannot be assured, which means that the situation contains risks to railway passengers and does not allow for fair market competition.
Italy is also in Court over the issue of the law on passenger rights, Regulation 1371/2007 on rail passengers' rights, which has not been correctly applied. This entered into force in 2009 and calls for an official body to be set up to verify application of the regulation. This has not occurred in Italy and the country does not have rules for penalising infringements to legislation on rail passenger rights either.
The Commission also sent a reasoned opinion to Finland, which will have two months to explain why it has only partially applied Directive 2008/57/EC on railway interoperability, which should have been transposed in 2010. If the Commission is not informed in time of Finland's intentions on this subject, the country could be taken to the European Court of Justice. Austria and Portugal have received reasoned opinions for incomplete application of Regulation 181/2011 on the rights of bus and coach passengers, which has been in force since March 2013. (MD)