Brussels, 12/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), body linked to the Council of Europe, adopted a relatively favourable "position" on the draft regulation on the opening of public transport to competition, being examined in the European Parliament and the EU Council, while insisting on the competences and role of the local authorites. The local authorities representatives insist for the local and regional authorities to retain the freedom to chose in which way they organise their transport services: whether it be in-house, and consequently without competition, or through tendering procedures. While the European Commission proposed to systematically make use of the tendering procedure, except for certain exceptions linked to safety and the integration of transport systems, the freedom of choice between direct management and tendering is also defended by France within the EU Council and by numerous European parliamentarians.
The CEMR underlines that "the integration of transport systems comes under the competence of public authorities, accountable to the citizens", and that "local and regional authorities must keep room for manoeuvre allowing them to control the quality of the performed services and the possibility of sanctions in the case of the non-respect of the contract".