Without damaging its role in elaborating the European legislation on interoperability and rail safety, it is obvious that, at the time being, the European Railway Agency does not have major surveillance and control competencies as regards national rail authorities, infrastructure managers and market players. Its responsibilities in terms of monitoring are practically limited to monitoring safety and interoperability performances, believes the European Commission.
The current long and expensive procedures, especially those necessary for obtaining the licenses for rail vehicles and the safety certificates for railway undertakings are important factors which prevent the development and the well-functioning of the EU railway market. Apart from being complicated and slow, these procedures don’t guarantee a sufficient level of mutual acknowledgement of certificates and licenses. This affects mostly the new undertakings that want to enter the market and contributes to the maintenance of a low level of competition and to the persistence of market issues.
“Actions by Member States alone cannot ensure the coherence of EU railway market and address the divergent interpretation of the legislation, as persistence of national rules and sub-optimal functioning of national institutions, acting as barriers to the internal market, is in fact at the centre of the problem. Action at EU level aims to ensure consistent implementation of the EU rail acquis, which should lead to the creation of the Single European Railway Area with no unnecessary administrative and technical barriers”, says the explanatory statement of the Commission on adopting the directive proposal that will enhance ERA’s role.
The Commission’s proposals that refer to enhancing the role of the European Railway Agency seek to eliminate the existing technical and administrative barriers aimed to increase the competitiveness of the railway sector compared to other transport modes and to continue developing the single European railway area.
Operational objectives include by 2025, the removal of all unnecessary national rules, a 20% reduction in the time to market for new railway undertakings above the baseline situation in 2025 and a 20% reduction in the cost and duration of the authorisation of rolling stock above the baseline situation in 2025.
Following the analyses carried out, the European Commission has elaborated a series of options aimed to enhance ERA’s role. Therefore, we can talk about greater coordination role for the Agency in ensuring a consistent approach to certification of railway undertakings and vehicle authorisation or the transformation of ERA into a one-stop-shop, where the final decision on certification and authorisation remains with the NSAs but ERA performs entry and exit checks of applications and of the decisions.
Another option that is significantly debated refers to the sharing of competencies between national safety authorities and ERA, where the final decision on certification and authorisation is taken by the Agency.
ERA taking over activities of NSAs in relation to certification of railway undertakings and vehicle authorisation is another option that could become effective if the legislative package will be adopted in the current form.
The Commission also proposes a distinct option regarding the adoption of horizontal measures, includes other legislative and soft measures (beyond sharing the responsibilities between national authorities and ERA) that could be implemented to improve the competitiveness of the rail sector.
According to this final option ERA would benefit from the consolidation of its role regarding the monitoring and control of implementing national safety and interoperability legislation, but also the capacity of amending safety and interoperability directives to enable the adoption of implementing acts setting out common principles and practices for national authorities.
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