Brussels, 11/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - Once again, the German presidency has confirmed the importance it attaches to mobility, by including a clause on the mutual recognition of vehicles authorised to move around within the EU in the proposed directive on the interoperability of the Community railway system. Meeting in Luxembourg on Friday 8 June, the Council adopted the report on the state of progress with work on the field, and undertook to continue its work in the month of June.
In order to facilitate the movement of trains within the EU, the Commission presented a package of measures on 22 December 2006, aiming to harmonise national procedures on standardisation of rolling stock throughout Europe and reinforcing the competencies of the European Railways Agency (see EUROPE 9227). Although the Presidency takes the view that it is too early to draft a joint position on the whole of the package (the member states have still, amongst other things, to look into proposing the creation of the European register of authorised vehicles, within the Agency), it nonetheless introduced two proposals, which enjoyed a broad consensus on the part of the member states and the Commission. The first proposal relates to mutual recognition of vehicle authorisations. Once a member state has authorised a certain type of vehicle, all vehicles of the same type will automatically be authorised to enter into service in the other member states. The second proposal relates to extending the scope of application of the directive to vehicles which are already operational. The transport committee of the European Parliament will take position on this dossier at first reading next September. (aby)