Elisabeth Werner, who is responsible for land transport in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, attended the European Parliament's Transport Committee (TRAN) to present a proposal for a regulation aimed at relieving the burden on the rail sector (see EUROPE 12513/13). Whilst at the meeting on Wednesday 2 September, she did her utmost to reassure certain MEPs of the EU Council's position on the dossier.
And with good reason, for this regulation will be adopted through an urgency procedure; it will therefore not go through the TRAN procedure and will be submitted directly to the European Parliament for approval at the plenary session on 14 September.
In order for it to be finally approved, the text, which was voted on by all MEPs, will have to be similar to the one adopted in the EU Council. The amendments that some have made, will therefore have to be adopted by others.
On Wednesday, Irish MEP and coordinator of Greens/EFA, Ciarán Cuffe, and his colleague Johan Danielsson (S&D, Sweden) therefore voiced their concerns to Ms Werner regarding an amendment to the original proposal by the EU Council.
“Market Segments”
In its draft special agreement discussed in a working party on Tuesday 1 September (see EUROPE 12547/11), the EU Council proposed granting Member States the option of dividing the market into different segments.
In summary, this would mean distinguishing between rail passenger transport and freight transport, or even different categories of freight transport, and thereby allocating aid accordingly. “We should not seek to limit the scope of assistance”, Cuffe said.
Elisabeth Werner gave reassurances to MEPs that when aid is applicable to a certain market segment, all operators in that segment using the same infrastructure will benefit from very similar fee exemptions.
Noting that the text calls for support to be provided without discrimination, she assured them that she “fully agreed that we need support for both the passenger and freight segments”.
“If you consider that different state aids or support measures have already been given to certain segment, I think it’s understandable that member states would want to make use of this tool without coming back or readjusting aids that were already given”, she said.
In addition to the questions raised on this particular amendment, Members of the TRAN Committee generally gave a very positive welcome to the EU Commission's proposal.
The same is true of the EU Council, where the text should be examined in Coreper as early as next week. “I think there is a consensus, even though the discussions are still ongoing”, said Werner, when she was asked about this. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)