11/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - 4th railway package: inter-institutional negotiations advance. During the trialogue on 10 March 2015, the European Parliament and Council reached an agreement on the question of authorisations under the 4th railway package. According to one parliamentary source, authorisations for trains and companies could be granted by either the national or European agency and the two authorities would share a joint data information base. International trains, however, will be exclusively accountable to the European agency. Infrastructure authorisations will be granted by the relevant national agency but only after having been given the go-ahead from the European agency. This appears to be a fair meeting point between the position of the EP and the Commission, which wanted a strong role for the European authority, and the states, which preferred to put the emphasis on the appropriate national authorities. This same source described this agreement as “significant progress” but many different points still need to be tackled. (JC)