Spain, together with Portugal and Croatia, supported by other countries such as France and Belgium, warned, during a public information item on Monday 8 June in Luxembourg, about the slow delivery times for new trains and other rolling stock, which undermine the sector’s competitiveness but also affect passengers.
It can sometimes “take eight years” between the signing of the contract and delivery of the new rolling stock, said Spain’s Transport Minister, Óscar Puente Santiago. Madrid therefore proposed that the European Commission bring together all the stakeholders concerned – manufacturers, ministers and competent authorities – in an attempt to fix these handicaps.
In a public note, the three countries stress that, during the informal meeting of Transport Ministers on 29 April, Member States discussed the need to improve railway certification and authorisation processes.
Several Member States then “underlined that lengthy development, testing, certification and authorisation cycles are no longer only an administrative concern. They have become a strategic challenge for the competitiveness of the European rail sector, in particular for manufacturers of rolling stock”.
“Today, European manufacturers of rolling stock face growing pressure from skyrocketing demand, rising costs, fragmented requirements, insufficient access to testing facilities and train paths, complex conformity assessment procedures, evolving technical standards and increasing international competition”.
In some cases, the full cycle, from the design stage to the entry into service of new rolling stock, can take eight to ten years.
The three countries are therefore calling on the Commission and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) to launch, together with Member States and industry, a structured high-level dialogue on the competitiveness of the European rail industry, focusing on reducing the time to market and time to entry into service for new rolling stock.
This was followed by another, broader debate on the European rail industry, this time on the basis of a note put forward by 10 countries (Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Romania).
The European rail industry generates revenues of more than €45 billion and more than 650,000 jobs across Europe.
“It underpins sustainable mobility, industrial employment, technological innovation and the resilience of Europe’s transport system. (...) At the same time, intensifying global competition, non-reciprocal market access, third-country subsidies and growing dependencies are placing increasing pressure on European manufacturers and suppliers”, these countries explain.
“While the Commission has already put forward an Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector and an Industrial Maritime Strategy, there is currently no comparable dedicated strategy for the European railway industry(…). This gap should be addressed”, the note adds.
European companies often face restricted access to foreign markets, while the European market remains relatively open. “The Commission should therefore assess whether existing trade and market access instruments are sufficient for the rail supply sector and ensure their coherent use where distortive practices, unequal access or non-reciprocal conditions undermine fair competition”.
European content requirements. Furthermore, public procurement measures must “become a stronger lever for safeguarding fair competition. The existing public procurement framework should be evaluated to assess whether it sufficiently reflects the specific challenges of strategic rail investments, including long lifecycles, security of supply and industrial resilience”, the countries also say.
During a brief public debate, French Minister Philippe Tabarot also argued for a European preference and European content criteria in public procurement and public support schemes for the rail industry.
Links to the public notes: https://aeur.eu/f/m7r; https://aeur.eu/f/m7s (Solenn Paulic)