As expected on Monday 2 December at the ‘Transport’ Council, the Member States’ Transport Ministers adopted a political agreement (‘general approach’) on the rewriting of Regulation (1371/2007) concerning rail passengers’ rights and obligations.
“These new rules will strengthen the rights of all passengers, including those with reduced mobility. They will also provide clarity when there are delays and cancellations. At the same time, they will encourage rail companies to provide more and better services, which will increase the popularity of this environmentally friendly means of travel”, said Sanna Marin, Finland’s Minister of Transport.
Welcoming the “balanced” compromise, the Member States called on the Finnish Presidency of the Council of the European Union to defend their position during interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’), which will now be able to begin.
In particular, Latvia stressed the need to retain the force majeure clause, which would allow railway undertakings to not pay compensation for delays or cancellations in circumstances they could not have avoided, such as extreme weather conditions, major natural disasters or people on the track. However, in its position adopted at first reading on 15 November 2018, the European Parliament decided to exclude such a clause (see EUROPE 12138/7) from the European Commission’s initial proposal (see EUROPE 11872/6).
In addition, the rules governing the transport of bicycles are another point that could be a problem in future trilogues. On one hand, Parliament wants new trains to be equipped with eight bicycle spaces from 2022 onwards unconditionally. On the other hand, Member States have defended restrictions on the transport of bicycles for “operational reasons”, which would then leave rail companies some leeway to refuse to allow a passenger to travel with a bicycle.
“The rail users have been demanding to carry their bikes onboard for years [...] The European Parliament and environmentalists will firmly defend this position”, warned Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France), chair of Parliament’s ‘Transport’ Committee. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)