Brussels, 14/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 14 July, two leading European federations in the rail sector reacted to the vote by the committee on transport and tourism (TRAN) on the draft resolution on the mid-term review of the 2011 White Paper on the future of transport. Whilst backing the initiative, they also express a number of misgivings.
“The CER agrees with the vast majority of issues dealt with by the TRAN committee”, said Libor Lochman, director of the Community of European Railway (CER), which represents rail companies and rail infrastructure managers in Europe, before going on to stress that the CER is unimpressed by the fact that all public contracts must go out to public tender. This, he argues, goes against the position adopted in February 2014 by the European Parliament on the provisions of regulation 1370/2007 on public passenger transport services by rail and road, he said.
The CER director also expressed concerns at the ban on excessively noisy freight wagons by 2020, which could disadvantage the rail sector, particularly as measures of this kind would bring about unfair competition in favour of road transport, which would not be subject to the same rules, he explained.
More generally, whilst welcoming the intention of the MEPs to speed up the implementation of the objectives of the White Paper and, in particular, the adoption of the fourth rail package (see EUROPE 11348 and 11347) and the joint company 'Shift2Rail', which encourages public-private partnership for innovation in the field of transport, the Community of European Railway (CER) and the Union of European Rail Industries (known by its French acronym, UNIFE) urge the MEPs to make sure that the member states provide “sufficient financing for rail infrastructure” and simplify rules and procedures, particularly within the framework of the trans-European transport network (TETN) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
The own-initiative report, presented by Dutch MEP Wim van de Camp (EPP), was adopted by a sizeable majority (38 votes in favour, three against and five abstentions) and will be the subject of a plenary vote on 7 September of this year. The revision of the White Paper undertaken by the European Commission will take place early in 2016. (Pascal Hansens)