The European Commission presented to the EU Council and the European Parliament, on Friday 27 November, a proposal for a regulation on the post-Brexit maintenance of a Channel Fixed Link between France and the United Kingdom.
At the beginning of October, the co-legislators had adopted two texts aimed at allowing the safety authority responsible for the cross-Channel rail link to retain its prerogatives once the post-Brexit transition period was over (see EUROPE 12577/16), subject to agreement between France and the United Kingdom.
In light of the recitals of today's proposal for a Regulation, it would appear that the European Commission is taking the lead in case such an agreement is not reached before the end of the post-Brexit transition period.
Without this agreement, from 1 January 2021, the Franco-British Commission responsible for all matters relating to the construction and operation of the tunnel (or Intergovernmental Commission - see EUROPE 12549/9) will lose its prerogatives. The French National Safety Authority will be responsible for the French part of the tunnel and the British authority for the British part.
The safety approvals and safety certificates hitherto issued by the Intergovernmental Commission will therefore cease to be valid, the European Commission recalls.
The new regulation should help to avoid such a scenario. It broadly reproduces the text of the agreement reached in March 2019 between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the measures to be taken on the European side to ensure the maintenance of the Channel Fixed Link between France and the United Kingdom in the event of a no-deal Brexit (see EUROPE 12212/16).
Extension of 2 or 9 months
The Commission suggests first of all in its proposal for a Regulation that the safety certificates granted under the Directive on safety on the Community's railways (2004/49) to infrastructure managers operating on infrastructure between the Union and the United Kingdom be extended by 2 months from the date of entry into force of the Regulation.
As regards the safety certificates issued, again in accordance with Directive 2004/49, to railway undertakings established in the United Kingdom and using the cross-Channel cross-border infrastructure, the Commission suggests that they remain valid for 9 months from the date of application of the Regulation. However, they would only be valid for the purpose of reaching the Calais-Fréthun border crossing from the United Kingdom or vice versa.
Finally, the new regulation proposes that licences issued to railway undertakings established in the United Kingdom under the Single European Railway Area Directive (2012/34) may also remain valid for a period of 9 months.
Nothing is specified, however, with regard to conductor licences.
Consult the draft regulations: https://bit.ly/36dinuN (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)