Brussels, 30/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 30 June, the permanent representatives of the member states to the EU (Coreper I) adopted the provisional agreement obtained on the 4th railway package on 17 June last (see EUROPE 11338). This is a victory for the European Parliament, which is now waiting for the Transport Council next October.
The agreement focuses on two main points: the national level transition period for the European legislative texts on interoperability and safety in the railway domain (once these are published in the EU Official Journal) and the delegated and implementing acts.
On the first point, the European Parliament originally wanted this transition period to be one year, whilst the Council was calling for five years. The compromise was subsequently found and sets the transposition deadline at three years..
The Gordian knot of delegated acts. The second point focuses on arbitration between the different areas of applying the delegated and implementing acts and which constitutes a real bone of contention between the European institutions (see EUROPE 10038). The Lisbon Treaty created a new category of legal acts, the “delegated acts”, which allows legislators to delegate to the Commission so-called non-essential elements contained within a legislative act, with the objective of facilitating the work of the legislators. The “implementing acts” on the other hand, define the European Commission's normative scope in relation to a legislative act so as to ensure standard implementation of European norms, without having to go through the official legislator.
The Parliament was successful in ensuring that the modalities for the delegated acts were applied for Common Security Objectives (CSO) and Common Security Methods (CSM), as well as the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI). A problem arose, however, particularly with regard to the latter, with the Council demanding an implementing act, whilst the EP, however, would have preferred a delegated act. In the former, only a minority blockage (35% of the population, 4 member states) is required at the Council to block an act, which provides it with better control of the activities of the Commission, whilst in the latter, a majority blockage is required (65% of the population, 55% of member states), which is essentially less easy for member states to find, explained one source close to the dossier to EUROPE.
Coreper I did not address a letter to the presidency of the Parliamentary committee, in an effort to avoid having to enter the second reading phase, which imposes a temporary framework on the Parliament (three months, with the possibility of a months extension). The Luxembourg Presidency, which officially takes over on 3 July, has effectively made a commitment to reach an agreement on the political pillar next October.
Alain Vidalies, the French secretary for state for transport, said: “It is now time to implement these texts as soon as possible, without waiting to the end of the negotiations involving the other proposals in the 4th railway package” and effectively called for Parliament's project to adopt a comprehensive package that includes both the technical and political pillars. (Pascal Hansens)