Brussels, 12/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The political pillar of the 4th rail package is well on its way to final adoption after the European Parliament's transport committee gave its approval on Tuesday 12 July to the inter-institutional agreement on the three elements of this pillar.
These are the regulation on the award of public service contracts (31 votes to 9), the directive on the governance of the railway infrastructure (28 votes to 12) and the directive on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings (37 votes to 3). Agreement on these three texts was reached in inter-institutional in April of this year (EUROPE 11542), in which the influence of the Council of the EU is dominant, several sources have observed (EUROPE 11536).
The Council now has to agree a common position, which will, in turn, be put to the vote in the transport committee, this being a second reading procedure. The Parliament rapporteurs are likely to recommend, then, that the common position be adopted without amendment so that it can be put to the vote in plenary session in November or December. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)