Luxembourg, 16/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) association has been highly critical of the approach adopted by the Council concerning the establishment of a competitive rail freight network (see EUROPE 9919), considering in particular that management of the network would be made more unwieldy and more restrictive for other market players such as port operators. In a statement published on Friday 12 June, EIM denounces the “purely political horse-trading” that has led to the adoption of a list of predefined rail corridors, and criticises the “lack of ambition” shown towards establishing priority rules for rail freight. “The industry is expecting a market-orientated and flexible corridor definition, not a list of corridors based on mere political decision”, the press release from the association's general secretary, Michael Robson, states. In particular, infrastructure managers consider the many references to the needs of passengers included in the text of the political agreement negotiated, will allow some infrastructure managers to “overlook freight needs”. The association also denounces reshuffling of the freight corridor management structure by the Council compared to the initial draft regulation (the Council introduced member state representatives in addition to infrastructure managers in the executive council for corridors), considering this recasting would make the management of the corridors too cumbersome. The EIM also objects to the fact that the Council does not allow “authorised candidates”, non-rail companies, from booking capacity on the network. EIM believes that other players such as freight forwarders or port operators should be entitled to “train path” allocation, the press release states, calling for this provision to be maintained in the text, supported by the European Parliament. It also considers the Council has “missed an opportunity to boost rail freight across the EU”. (A.By./transl.jl)