Luxemburg, 13/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 13 June, the Transport Council adopted conclusions on the Commission communication making it easier for multi-annual contracts to be signed between member states and rail infrastructure managers. The Council reaffirmed that it supported appropriate planning and implementation of infrastructure maintenance, recognised the need to modernise infrastructure to meet the future needs of users and considered that it was important to put in place national long-term strategic frameworks to improve the quality of the infrastructure. It pointed out, however, that multi-annual contracts were not compulsory and that it was member states which were best placed to determine the most appropriate infrastructure funding measures. Given their differing situations, the Council also called on member states to consider agreements with infrastructure managers to ensure that funding made available to these latter brings consistency between infrastructure performance (capacity, reliability), state funding and the level of charges both for increasing the aid allocated to infrastructure managers with a view to reducing the costs of infrastructure supply and, thereby, of user charges. According to member states, agreements thus concluded could reward those managers who achieve better results than expected with regard to infrastructure quality, the overall situation in terms of profits and losses or the level of traffic. The agreements could also, if need be, designate a body that would be responsible for monitoring the application of the multi-annual agreements and putting in place procedures for settling disputes. The Council called on the European Commission regularly to monitor the way the multi-annual agreements are implemented and progress made in their application, through an assessment system set up for this purpose and in close cooperation with member states, infrastructure managers and supervisory bodies. (A.By/transl.rt)