Brussels, 27/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The agreement reached last week by the Parliament and the Council for opening the rail sector up to competition was welcomed by all the parties concerned. The president of the Transport Council, French Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, was pleased to note in a press release this "essential decision for the future of rail transport". The agreement, he says, respects the compromise balance concluded at the Transport Council in December 1999, and will continue to "pursue the construction of a true rail Europe, which must fully integrate, as the Council unanimously stressed, the imperatives of safety and employment concerns". He recalled that the directive on rail interoperability has still to be adopted. This should make it possible to resolve the technical barriers to the development of a fully integrated European network.
The Parliament rapporteur on this subject, Georg Jarzembovski, said he too was pleased with the compromise, and stressed "we now have an agreement on international freight transport, and Commissioner Loyola de Palacio has undertaken to present new proposals for the liberalisation of other kinds of rail transport". "I hope that, with the Commission's help, the momentum for liberalisation will not be lost", he added. The MEP felt the rail network "must be used effectively, as rail is essential in the battle against traffic congestion, air congestion and the resulting pollution that threatens our environment. Intermodal transport, with the skilful combination of water, rail and air transport is the only solution".
The rail transport companies and infrastructure managers, grouped in the Community of European Railways (CER), also welcome the agreement and stress in a press release that "conciliation preserves the essence of the compromise finalised by the Transport Ministers in December 1999. This mainly aims at national exemptions and access rights". The railway companies note that "the agreement also introduces an intermodal perspective for the pricing of access to transport infrastructures, including the principle of internalising external costs". The CER believes this prospect should give a "pragmatic and effective" content to the debate in progress on the pricing of transport infrastructures. This framework common to all modes of transport is "one of the key elements needed for complying with the EU's political aim of equitable treatment for the different kinds of transport and the development of sustainable mobility in Europe".
The European Federation for Transport and the Environment (T&E) introduces some undertone into the praise. While stressing that the compromise will allow rail to develop in Europe, thanks to greater efficiency and enlarged access to infrastructures, the association stresses that "liberalisation is not an aim in itself. The aim is to progress towards a more sustainable freight transport system". T&E notes two weak points: the opening of any European network up to competition should be undertaken before the 7 years fixed in the agreement. Furthermore "the compromise does not call for complete separation of infrastructure management and transport services" (an interpretation that differs from that of CER, which stresses that "separation is now made compulsory for functions relating to network access conditions"). The compromise concluded by the EP and the Council imposes separate accounting for infrastructure management and transport services, and provides for the creation of an independent body responsible for ensuring impartial allocation of tracks.