Brussels, 01/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - In transport, the 4th railway package will undoubtedly be the priority of the Italian Presidency of the EU, which took over from Greece on 1 July. A diplomatic source has indicated that work will begin as soon as possible on the political pillar in the reform, in an effort to reach a general approach by the end of the year, whilst beginning negotiations with the European Parliament on the technical pillar.
The Italian Presidency will therefore tackle the railway package in a comprehensive and holistic way, explained the same diplomatic source. At October's Transport Council, the Presidency wants “reflection on the principles that could form a common approach on the main elements”. The political chapters of the 4th package on railway governance, the opening up of markets and allocating public contracts will therefore not be separated, as the Commission had feared. The Italian Presidency is determined to press ahead in the railway sector and is not ruling out the possibility of completing the political side of things at the Council before 2015, even though the positions of member states do not always coincide. Bilateral meetings with the Italian minister responsible have already begun and discussions will begin this month. The Presidency also intends to open negotiations with the European Parliament on the technical pillar but this will be done a little later, whilst waiting for confirmation from the rapporteurs on the different texts in the package. “Pre-negotiations” on the technical pillar will therefore take place over the next few months.
It also looks like the Italian Presidency will have a hard job on the issue of air transport. As long as the political question of whether Community law should apply to the Gibraltar airport is still pitting the United Kingdom against Spain, the Italian Presidency will have to make do with a wait-and-see position on the question of revising air passenger rights, as well as on the airport package (ground handling and slot allocation). The same diplomatic source explains that this is “a question that is beyond our control” and stated that the Presidency would still attempt to pursue further analysis of these dossiers, if the situation became more fluid. On the other hand, the Single European Sky 2+ package is still not sufficiently far advanced for this matter to be soured. Therefore, Italy will have to focus if it is to make progress and possibly achieve a political agreement under its mandate. The Italian Presidency intends to make progress on the port package, which is important for Mediterranean ports; trialogue negotiations could also begin on the revision of the weights and dimensions for lorries, depending on the resources available for it, said our diplomatic source. On 15-16 September, the Presidency will begin work after the summer recess with an informal meeting of transport ministers in Milan which will focus on infrastructure. This will include the issue of implementing the Trans-European Transport Network, governance of its corridors and financing the necessary investment. (MD)