After more than three years of talks, on Wednesday 14 December, MEPs adopted the three texts that make up the political, also known as the market, pillar of the fourth rail package which seeks to partially liberalise national rail markets. Up until the last minute, adoption was far from certain, the S&D Group having decided very late in the day not to support the report on the public service obligation.
“I’m relieved”, said Wim van de Camp (EPP, Netherlands), rapporteur on the “Opening of the market for domestic passenger transport services by rail: award of public service contracts”. His pleasure was shared by Social Democrat David-Maria Sassoli (Italy), the rapporteur on the text on the directive on governance of the rail infrastructure, who hailed “this fine day for Europe”. Similarly, Merja Kyllönen (GUE/NGL) welcomed adoption of the package which, in her view, will bring stability to the European regulatory environment and, by this token, will attract investment.
The regulation on the award of public service contracts seeks to open up national markets and to make public procurement the rule, except in cases where exemptions apply. The directive on governance seeks to improve governance of rail management so as to guarantee equal access to national infrastructure. Lastly, the third regulation relates to the repeal of the regulation on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings (Regulation 1192/69) in order to end discrimination between public and private companies in the rail sector. The political/market pillar was greatly changed in its passage through Council, which introduced a series of derogations, for example, on the award of public contracts (see EUROPE 11536).
Unexpected U-turn by S&D Group on EPP text. The outcome of the vote hung in the balance right until the last moment. The package had had to face opposition from a number of political groups (Greens/EFA, GUE/NGL, EFDD and some S&D delegations) and trade unions (see EUROPE 11688) over fears of a deterioration in the quality of public services, particularly in terms of coverage, and on working conditions.
The van de Camp text, in particular, was the focus of union and parliamentary criticism in that it made no provision for the compulsory re-employment of staff after a change of operator (see EUROPE 11688) and the doubt as to whether or not it would be adopted lasted until the very day of the vote. While the S&D Group had backed the text in the transport and tourism committee (see EUROPE 11682), it decided at a meeting on Tuesday 13 December to vote against the report.
Pittella is only member of Italian delegation to vote for EPP text. The Italian delegation – with the notable exception of the S&D Group leader Gianni Pittella (who was joined by a few Spanish MEPs) did not support the EPP rapporteur’s report. Speaking to EUROPE, David-Maria Sassoli said that the S&D about turn was not in any way connected with the hard line advanced by S&D Group leader Pittella in the campaign for the Parliament presidency. Pittella wants to end the “grand coalition” between the EPP and the S&D, the two largest groups (see EUROPE 11688).
The EPP text was adopted by a slim majority, the amendment for rejection of the text having been defeated by 354 votes to 330, with 24 abstentions (which were counted as being against the amendment, so the qualified majority was 376. The S&D had put down an amendment to protect staff in cases of transfer of services from one operator to another but it was narrowly defeated (333 votes for, 349 against, 24 abstentions).
Prospect of fifth rail package totally rejected. When asked by EUROPE about the possibility of a fifth rail package to address the shortcomings of the fourth, the three rapporteurs were unanimous in their opposition, stating that, first and foremost, this new package and, indeed, the first and second had to be implemented. Currently, the first and second are only being partially applied in some member states (see EUROPE 11499).
The much less controversial technical pillar was adopted in April (see EUROPE 11542). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)