Brussels, 22/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - Thursday's Transport Council held an exploratory debate on the proposed regulation relating to the rights and obligations of international rail passengers, which is part of the third railway package adopted in March 2004 by the Commission. After the debate, which took place on the basis of a Presidency questionnaire, “a majority of Member States did not want to move forward with a new Community instrument which does not fully respect the provisions of the COTIF” (the Convention on international carriage by rail), concluded Council President Lucien Lux. The Council thus gave the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU (Coreper) a mandate to continue work. The Council also took note of the state of play in work on the proposed regulation on compensation in cases of non-respect of contractual quality requirements applicable to freight rail services, which is also part of the third railway package. On this point, the Council was even more to the point, Mr Lux telling the press that “my mission was to tell the Commission that the Member States are not wildly enthusiastic (…) about this proposal”. According to a Presidency press release, most Member States think that “better quality of freight services could be more easily guaranteed by a convention between the parties involved, i.e. the rail companies and their clients”. The Presidency feels that it is essential to assess the results of the policies of liberalisation carried out for years in this sector before going any further. “This assessment is extremely important to us, because just as we are discussing the third railway package and are thinking about a fourth one, we must take stock to see whether all the objectives of the common policy of recent years have indeed been achieved”, added Mr Lux, saying that he had received the assurances of Commissioner Barrot that the Commission would carry out this assessment quickly and closely involve the Member States.