Brussels, 28/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - Monday's Transport Council held a policy debate on a revised proposal for a regulation on public passenger transport services by rail and road. Presented in September 2005, it aims to update the 1969 regulation (amended in 1991) for an increasingly open and competitive market in this sector while safeguarding services of general interest (SGI). The proposal provides for relevant authorities to have the possibility to call on internal operators when organising their public transport services (and in this case to grant direct awards without tendering procedure), or to call on an external operator with a call for tenders. The proposal also provides for exceptions, mainly for regional and long distance rail services, which may be the subject of direct contract awarding without calls for tenders (see EUROPE 8995). During the debate, a significant number of delegations expressed agreement for extending this possibility to all “heavy” rail services, including “suburban rail and integrated rail networks”. They were divided, however, over the possibility of extending the exception to all public passenger transport. Many delegations agreed to allow public service contracts awarded after a truly fair competitive tendering procedure to continue until their date of expiry. The Council called on the Committee of Permanent Representatives to pursue its work to seek to reach a political agreement during the Transport Council on 8 and 9 June.