Brussels, 25/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - EU Member States have not completely transposed the first rail package - with the result that the situation of goods transport by rail within the European Union is far from brilliant. Such is the main statement made by the preliminary draft report by the European Commission on implementation of the first rail package by Member States, made available to EUROPE. In principle, the report should be adopted by the Commission on 3 May.
The first rail package that aims to liberalise the international rail freight transport market was to have been transposed by Member States by 15 March 2003 at the latest. By 1 January 2006, all Member States except Luxembourg had formally transposed it into their national legislation but at different rates. Some Member States opened their market well before the deadline set, while others, like Spain, did so in 2005. These delays have had an impact on the ability of players to position themselves on the European scene because of the resulting national regulatory uncertainties, the document notes. Figures speak for themselves: in the EU25, the volume of freight transported by rail increased by 6% per year between 1995 and 2004 but the rail freight market share in 2004 was 10% compared to 12.1% in 1995. Over the same period, road and maritime transport increased their share of the market by 42.1% to 44% and from 38.9% to 39% respectively. This situation is all the more unfortunate as Member States that notch up the best performances and where rail has managed to regain market shares, are those that have taken the measures necessary to reform their rail sector and even to anticipate the opening up of their market, the document stresses. Also, the States that are the most open to competition today do not experience any worsening of the rail safety level (United Kingdom, Sweden or the Netherlands).
In its text, the Commission lists the shortcomings in transposing the different provisions of the first rail package concerning: modification of the legal structure of rail companies (which is not complete everywhere), transparent and non-discriminatory access to infrastructure (effort is still required in many countries), the independent national control body (which does not have sufficient resources to allow it to play an active role in all countries), tariffs (which vary between modes of transport but also within the rail network entailing competition distortion), and transparency of conditions to be met by rail companies in order to obtain a license that is valid throughout Community territory (to be improved). The Commission, however, puts on an optimistic face. It considers that implementation of the first rail package is well underway, but recognises that it has still to be consolidated on several points in order to ensure it has a full effect.
To this end, it recommends that Member States: - complete the restructuring of traditional rail companies in compliance with the conditions of separate accounting and separation of essential functions (such as allocation of capacities and pricing), in order to ensure transparent and non-discriminatory access to infrastructures; - establish transparent principles of infrastructure pricing taking into account the pricing of other forms of transport and creating equitable competition conditions between these modes of transport; - provide the control body with sufficient human, financial and administrative resources to operate successfully and ensure it remains independent; - placing under contract the financial relations of the State with the infrastructure governing body for the financing of maintenance and upgrading of the infrastructure; - clarify financial relations between national and regional transport authorities and rail companies by sealing duly published public service contracts; - ban cross subsidies between freight transport operations and passenger transport; - and create conditions for transparent and non-discriminatory access conditions to certificates of security and to training centres.
The Commission recommends that infrastructure managers: - improve the content and the advertising of the network reference document (which must contain technical, practical and price information for all the services necessary for access to the infrastructure; - fix charges linked to the real costs of rail transport; - strengthen cooperation at European level to improve the granting of international routes and establish harmonised conditions for access to the infrastructure via standard contact types.
The Commission for its part plans to present a measure this year to facilitate the mutual recognition of rolling stock, and considers that it will be necessary to develop training networks for jobs in the rail sector at European level. The Commission also points out that it will closely follow the market situation and take the necessary measures to correct undesirable situations, especially by initiating infringement proceedings or proposing amendments to existing directives if these reveal persistent insufficiencies.