The Transport Ministers of the Member States of the European Union will approve, on Monday 3 December, at the Transport Council meeting, a rather modest progress report on the recast of the Regulation on rail passengers' rights and obligations.
This progress report follows a first progress report endorsed at the June Transport Council meeting under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council (see EUROPE 12036), which itself echoes the European Commission's proposal of September 2017 (see EUROPE 11872).
The Austrian Presidency of the Council has only dealt with the first three chapters of the proposal during this six-month period and has therefore not addressed the issue of the reimbursement rate that rail users could benefit from due to delays or the problematic issue of force majeure that could justify non-reimbursement. This rather modest pace of progress in the Council's ‘Land Transport’ working party is to be linked to the difficult negotiations on the social and market aspects of the first ‘mobility’ package (see EUROPE 12146).
Disagreements were expressed as to the scope of the future regulation. It should be noted that, in a final draft compromise, Vienna suggested excluding urban, suburban and regional services, including cross-border services, from the scope of application. It was also recommended that bicycles should be allowed on board trains for a ‘reasonable fee’, as proposed by the Commission. Differences were reported to have been highlighted during the discussions.
The options considered by Vienna on the scope and boarding of bicycles go against the position of the European Parliament adopted in plenary session on 15 November last (see EUROPE 12138).
Work must also continue, according to the Austrian Presidency of the Council, in particular on definitions, as well as on travel information.
It will now be up to the future Romanian Presidency of the Council to try to make progress on this text in the first half of 2019. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)