Brussels, 19/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Italian Presidency of the Council, which takes over on 1 July, is wants to open negotiations immediately on the political pillar in the 4th railway package. However, it is likely to prioritise railway governance and not the allocation of public contracts. The Commission is concerned by this and would prefer that these two parts of the political pillar be negotiated at the same time.
Italian negotiations. During his visit to Rome last week, European Commission for Transport Siim Kallas spoke about this with the Italian minister responsible for infrastructure, Maurizio Lupi. Given that the political negotiations could prove both lengthy and fraught, the Commission would prefer the possibility of negotiating this pillar as a package rather than separating the negotiations on Directive 2012/34/EU and Regulation 1370/2007. Sources close to the dossier have stated that the Commission is exerting pressure on Italy on this subject. These sources also indicate that although it is very unlikely that the dossier can be completed under this Presidency, much progress can still be achieved by it. Italy has a lot of solid and conclusive experience in the area of opening up the railway markets, which is obviously an advantage in this specific case.
New EP rapporteurs. The European Parliament has already adopted a position on the whole package in a first reading, whilst the Council has only reached a position on the technical pillar. Once the Council has a position on the entire package, inter-institutional negotiations can begin. These will also be complicated by the fact that the two European Parliament rapporteurs on the political pillar, Saïd El Khadraoui and Mathieu Grosch, have not been re-elected. Two other MEPs will therefore have to take over their reports in mid-stream and carry out negotiations on this basis. (MD)