Brussels, 18/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Council and the European Parliament reached provisional agreement on Wednesday 17 June on the technical pillar of the 4th rail package, improving procedures on interoperability and safety authorisations for the rail sector in Europe and giving new responsibilities to the European Railway Agency (ERA).
It took nine trialogue meetings with the Parliament to reach the agreement, which updates three European legislative texts. In substance, the revision seeks, on the one hand, to bring down administrative costs for rail operators and, on the other, to make it easier for potential operators to enter national rail markets.
One of the stumbling blocks to this pillar of the rail package was the duplication of national technical and safety standards and those set by ERA. The agreement proposes to repeal Regulation 881/2004 on the ERA with a view to making the Agency a “one-stop-shop” for authorising new rail vehicles and for issuing safety certificates for train operators and authorisations for train control and signalling systems. It also gives ERA a range of new responsibilities and reforms ERA governance.
The second point of the agreement amends Directive 2008/57 on technical standardisation and the interoperability of the rail system and seeks to ensure greater harmonisation of the rules. Furthermore, for the first time, technical specifications for interoperability (TSI) have been given to facilitate compatibility between rail vehicles and railway lines.
The third and final point relates to the addition of a single safety certificate that was lacking in Directive 2004/49 on railway safety. Only operators holding this certificate, to be awarded by ERA, will be able to operate in the European railway network.
“The railway industry has been waiting for this new legislation for a long time, as the European railway sector still faces continuous problems such as barriers to competition, discrimination and a lack of dynamic business-friendly environment”, said Roberts Zile (ECR, Latvia). “Along with the European Parliament, I welcome this agreement reached with the Council. It represents a fair balance between the interests of the member states and the demands of the European Parliament”, stated Michael Cramer (Greens/EFA, Germany). “What's left now is agreement on the political pillar, which will be much more difficult to achieve. The Luxembourg Presidency would like to reach agreement by 8 October but, short of emptying the document of its whole content, I'm not optimistic that anything positive can be done in such a short space of time”, a Parliament source close to this issue told EUROPE.
The agreement will now be put to the member states for adoption in Council on 24 June. (Pascal Hansens)