The rail transport market in Europe has been marked by significant changes. New policies have been gradually introduced to stimulate market opening and the establishment of a competitive and interoperable railway system while maintaining a high safety level. In this context, the EC has planned launching the Fourth Railway Package to improve the quality and efficiency of railway services by removing the barriers which prevent the development of the single market.
In conformity with the new EU proposals, the European Railway Agency (ERA) will release the authorizations of the vehicles introduced in the market and the safety certificates for operators, currently these documents being issued by each member state. According to EU data, the measures proposed would permit reducing by 20% the time that new entrants take to access a market and by 20% the costs and the time for rolling stock authorizations. Generally, these should help companies save up to EUR 500 Million by 2025.
Therefore, as a component of the Fourth Railway Package, at the end of January 2013, the Commission adopted the “Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on railway safety” (recast) focusing on the removal of administrative and technical barriers, in particular by establishing a common approach to safety and interoperabi-lity rules to increase economies of scale for railway undertakings active across the EU, decreasing administrative costs and accele-rating administrative procedures, as well as avoiding discrimination.
In order to pursue efforts to establish a single market for rail transport services, it is necessary to establish a common regulatory framework for railway safety.
The section “Legal Elements of the Proposal” contains detailed comments and explanations regarding the major changes in the text of the Directive. In the first chapter, “General Provisions”, the application field is adapted to comply with the Interoperability Directive (Article 2) and provides new definitions and several amendments to improve coherence with similar definitions used in the Interoperability Directive (Article 3).
Chapter II – “Development and Ma-nagement of Safety”, clarifies the role and responsibilities of the players in the railway chain to take into account to recent evolution of the market and of the legal framework. Chapter III, referring to safety certification and authorisation, details on the introduction of the system of single safety certificate for railways undertakings replacing the former system of safety certificate and its two parts, while Article 11, “Applications for single safety certificates”, is adapted to the process on the transfer of the single certificate taking into account the new role of the Agency. Chapter IV introduces amendments on the new role of national safety authorities in the process of move towards a single safety certificate and reallocation of responsibilities between them and the Agency. The next two chapters clarify on the cooperation between the national investigation body and the judicial authorities in case of investigation following an accident and the new provisions on delegated acts taking into account the entry into force of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
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