Brussels, 13/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council held a public debate on the 4th rail package on Friday 13 March. The Latvian Presidency of the Council was hoping for policy guidance on this matter, following the compromise text it presented in January.
Luxembourg Transport Minister François Bausch opened the debate by declaring his country's “total opposition to forced competition on public service contracts”. He stated that, for smaller countries, there were “no benefits in such measures”. He argued, indeed, that they could put the Luxembourg operator (Société nationale des chemins de fer luxembourgeois, or CFL), “the country's fourth largest employer”, at risk. Bausch proposed, therefore, that exemptions be put in place for countries whose rail traffic was less than 1% of EU domestic rail passenger traffic. He told EUROPE that he wanted to continue directly awarding public service contracts but that he accepted there would have to be additional conditions, particularly increased transparency.
In the course of the debate, several other smaller states supported the Luxembourg position: Lithuania, Portugal, Estonia, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia (whose minister put forward the figure of 0.22%) and Ireland (0.4% its minister suggested). “Our market is small and isolated. It has little potential for growth and few international routes”, said Ireland. “For small markets, there are only two possibilities: a private monopoly or a public monopoly. And if it's public, it's more transparent with regard to subsidies”, added Estonia. Slovakia stressed the very particular nature of small networks, while Greece laid great emphasis on the importance of the notion of public service.
Following the debate, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc acknowledged that “every country has its own particular demands”. In her view, there should be no exemptions but she stated that exemptions could only happen through objective criteria, with quality of service as the objective. During the final press conference, she made the point that “non-discrimination and transparency are at the top” of the objectives of the legislative package.
Latvian Transport Minister Anrijs Matiss said he would bring forward a new compromise text around Easter. “We have to define a set of criteria. 1% will be one of them”, he stated. (Jean Comte)