The proposal to recast the first railway package is firstly an exercise in legislative simplification and consolidation (“codification”) with the merger of the three directives in force and their successive amendments (all in all nine directives, one decision and two acts of accession). The recast also aims to modernise the legislation and tackle key problem areas which have been identified on the market over the last 10 years.
The current economic climate is only exacerbating the weak performance of the rail market. Freight services (including rail) have recently suffered a significant drop in activity (between 20% and 50% depending on the market segment) and passenger service activity has also slowed. Stakeholders have indicated that national recovery plans are not producing investments as rapidly as had been hoped and that major job cuts are anticipated, particularly in the freight sector. Legal simplification through consolidation and merger is the first horizontal objective underpinning this recast initiative. Elimination of existing cross-references of the three Directives through restructuring and merging into a single rail access code would be instrumental in attaining this objective. Secondly, the Commission considers that clarification of some provisions of rail access legislation would facilitate proper transposition and efficient implementation of European Union law in all Member States. As noted above, some provisions of the first railway package are ambiguous and do not sufficiently define means of implementation.
The proposed recast of the first railway package encompasses: the adequate financing of and charging for rail infrastructures, the conditions of competition on the railway market, and the organisational reforms needed to ensure appropriate supervision of the market. Ensuring adequate, transparent and sustainable funding of the infrastructure and, thanks to better predictability of the infrastructure development and access conditions, facilitating investments by railway undertakings, together with a more appropriate level and structure of infrastructure charging, improving the competitiveness of rail operators vis-à-vis other transport modes and contributing to the internalisation of environmental costs constitute the first objective of the proposed recast. The second set of objectives includes avoiding distortions of competition due to the use of state funds for commercial activities, preventing commercially sensitive information from being collected by incumbents and used against their potential competitors, eliminating conflicts of interest in the management of rail-related services and increasing their availability for new entrants as well as increasing market transparency to ensure effective competition. Regarding regulatory oversight, the proposed recast intends to ensure that regulatory bodies are in a position to carry out their duties effectively, thanks to reinforced independence, extended competencies, and additional means at their disposal. “We need to deliver better quality, better reliability, more choice and more innovation to passengers and freight users. That’s what this package is designed to do. My aim in all of this is more competition in passenger and freight services. That will be good for passengers, good for freight users, good for very high quality rail equipment producers and good for the environment”, Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice-President responsible for Transport said. Under the new legislation, Member States will be obliged to publish medium to long-term railway sector development strategies that make it possible to meet future mobility needs and are based on sound and sustainable financing of the railway system. It will stimulate long lifecycle investments on which the rail industry relies. Long-term commitments are necessary for attracting new actors to the market and for developing new services. Another measure has to do with differentiation of track access charges based on the noise emission characteristics of the rolling stock making up the train. This will constitute a clear incentive to modernise the infrastructure and in particular to invest in more sustainable rail technologies. If a Member State owns or controls, directly or indirectly, the railway company, its control rights related to the board don’t have to exceed the board rights that the national law of firms grants to joint-stock companies. General politics orientations that the state can establish for companies in controlling the stakeholders can only be general and cannot interfere with the concrete commercial decisions of the board. In 2011, the Commission will present the results of its work currently underway to develop further the links between TEN-Ts and European Neighbourhood countries, and the integration of candidate country networks with the TEN-T network. The Commission will also propose to extend market opening to domestic passenger traffic, whether under public service or private contracts, subject to appropriate quality safeguards. Through the revision of the existing EU rail market access legislation, the Commission intends to establish a financial environment conducive to public and private investments in the rail sector.
by Elena Ilie
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