Brussels, 21/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament and the Council will be trying on Wednesday to come to agreement on the scope of liberalisation of railways in Europe, at a conciliation meeting to be held in Brussels. Several compromise proposals are on the table in an effort to solve this ideological conflict between MEPs and Member States.
With its adoption last July of the Jarzembowski and Swoboda reports, the European Parliament introduced much more ambitious liberalisation objectives than those proposed by the Council. Taking into account the serious reservations of France, Belgium and Luxembourg on what they consider the European Commission's excessive liberalisation proposals, the Council reached a compromise that foresees the opening of rail to competition within the limits of a trans-European freight network. The EP amended the Council's text, setting much more ambitious objectives: 1) the liberalisation of freight throughout the European rail network within five years; 2) the liberalisation of passenger transport in 2010. It also deleted the derogations granted to Ireland, Luxembourg and Greece.
There may already be a compromise between MEPs and the Council on the question of derogations. So as to obtain the withdrawal of amendments on the liberalisation of passenger transport as well, the Commission has offered to make an undertaking in the recitals of the future directive to present new legislative proposals at a later date to expand the liberalisation of rail. On the other hand, discussions are still stumbling on the opening to competition of secondary rail networks. "As it is not likely that the Deutsche Bahn will decide one day to provide service on the Dinan-SaintMalo lines, the debate is primarily ideological", notes an observer at the Commission.
Well-informed sources are much more optimistic about the results of the conciliation in Parliament and at the Council than at the Commission, where debate is expected to drag on for several days.