Brussels, 27/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The adoption by the permanent representatives (COREPER I) of the informal agreement on the political pillar of the fourth railway package, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday 27 April, has been postponed until the next day following a joint request for clarification made by Germany, France and the United Kingdom on the “governance” plank.
The three member states, which have concerns regarding a number of grey areas over checks on conflicts of interests between operators and network managers, particularly regarding the scope of the regulatory authorities' powers, are reported to have submitted a series of proposals to clarify the application of the future directive. Another point of concern, particularly for France, is the question of the economic balance tests, which are used to determine the impact of newcomers on the existing railway services. Here, the three states wish for a clarification of the safeguard clauses for the high-speed lines.
The Dutch Presidency has therefore undertaken to make clarification efforts regarding the interpretation of the text and is expected to ask the European Commission, as guardian of the treaties, to adopt written statements on these subjects to make its position clear to the member states, a source told us.
Even so, the postponement does not seem to call into question the adoption of the formal agreement reached on Tuesday 19 April, at the last meeting of inter-institutional dialogue, when the Dutch Presidency stated the overall position of the member states (see EUROPE 11536). “Everybody agrees on the aim of concluding without a second reading”, a diplomatic source told us. According to another source, there would be little point, tactically, of moving to a second reading, due to the risk of having to renegotiate compromises which had previously found favour with all the member states.
The regulation on public service obligations (PSO) and the normalisation of accounts appears less problematic and only the recitals will have to be examined. (Original in French by Pascal Hansens)