Brussels, 03/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - Effective implementation of existing legislation and new measures, these are, according to Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot the medium-term priorities for rail transport. In a speech delivered at the annual conference, on 29 March, of several rail associations devoted to the opening of the European rail networks, Mr Barrot said that the effective implementation of the first rail package would be one of his priorities for 2006. This 2001 legislative package, which should have been transposed into Member States' national legislation by March 2003, “is still not fully operational everywhere”, he acknowledged, highlighting two major obstacles: the difficulty for new entrants to have access to the infrastructure and to provide transport services in non-discriminatory conditions, and resistance from “historic” monopoly companies to “play the competition game without seeking to benefit from their still largely dominant position”. In its report on the implementation of the first rail package, expected soon, the Commission will recommend that infrastructure managers: 1) improve the contents of the network reference document (which has to include a series of technical, practical and price information) and make it “more easily accessible to all interested parties”; and 2) increase cooperation at European level in order to improve the granting of international corridors and set up harmonised conditions for access to the infrastructure, for example through the use of standard contracts.
Member State, too, will have to make efforts to 1) complete the restructuring of “historic” monopoly companies, respecting the conditions of accounting separation and vital functions (such as allocation of capacity and price-setting); 2) establish transparent rail infrastructure price-setting principles; 3) ensure that the inspection authority has the necessary administrative capacity to operate properly, and guarantee its independence; 4) create transparent and non-discriminatory access conditions to rail transport services, such as maintenance yards, termini and training centres. If it was required, the Commission could present “possibly even this year” proposals for “improving certain aspects, such as the organisation of relations between infrastructure managers and rail companies,” Mr Barrot added.
He will also monitor carefully the transposition into national law of the second rail package, adopted in April 2004, and due by 30May 2006, apart from the directive on the opening of the freight rail market, which should have been incorporated into national law by the end of December 2005. Mr Barrot hopes too that work on the third rail package, presented in March 2004 (see EUROPE 8658), and the proposal for a regulation on public service obligations (PSO) and passenger transport (see EUROPE 9162) will progress sufficiently to allow the adoption of the third package “early in 2007”.
The Commission is also working with Member States on guidelines to facilitate rolling-stock type-approval on the European network, given the difficulties encountered by rail companies in getting their locomotives approved in each country crossed. “Solutions will shortly be proposed to the parties concerned with a view to making pragmatic progress on this fundamental issue,” said Mr Barrot.
Finally, the Commission could this year adopt a communication on the development of a “dedicated freight network” in Europe, an idea on which it has been working along with the sector to define an action plan. This idea “is an attractive one, since it would make it possible to improve the quality of services and thereby contribute to a better balance between modes” of transport, said Mr Barrot, pointing out elsewhere that joint financing of the European rail traffic management system, ERTMS, “will be one of my major priorities in 2007-2013”.