Mr President, Madam Vice-President, ladies and gentlemen, the Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism proposes that plenary at last gradually but properly liberalise the railway market, with liberalisation to be completed by the year 2010. Only then will we achieve our common goal of shifting more freight from the roads on to the railways and, hence, of sustainable mobility within the European Union. First I must thank the Commission, especially the Vice-President, Mrs Palacio, and the Finnish Presidency, without whom there would have been no common positions in the Council in December 1999. We are most grateful for that. But Parliament will defend the view in the codecision procedure that the positions taken do not go far enough in order to safeguard the long-term future of the railways. The Council wants to move one small step at a time. We take the view that it is high time, eight years after the completion of the single market, to set signals and regulate conclusively so that the liberalisation of the railway sector can be completed by 2010. This also fits in with what was said at the Lisbon Summit, where the Heads of State and Government pressed for further liberalisation of the transport sector. So what are our most important proposed amendments? First, we agree with the Council that, if the railway networks are to be used efficiently, only cross-border freight traffic need be liberalised for a special trans-European rail freight network. But we take the view that five years is long enough to show railways and their employees that they have nothing to fear from the liberalisation of the networks. We feel that railway undertakings should have access to the entire network of the fifteen Member States in five years' time, for both international and national freight traffic, and by 2010 for international and national passenger traffic. This gradual liberalisation plan would give us a real common network in the European Union by 2010. In order to ensure that railway undertakings in all Member States also have real access to local networks in other Member States, we feel that there must be a strict, compulsory division between the management of individual networks and the provision of transport services by individual national railway undertakings. Experience over the past 40 years shows that, if infrastructure and operations are not separated, the national railway undertaking always reserves the best lines for itself, thereby denying other railway undertakings effective, non-discriminatory access. We take the view that, if there is to be even greater use of the networks, legal entities other than railway undertakings, such as shippers and forwarding agents, should have the right to apply for and be granted licences to use lines throughout the Community. Liberalising the right to apply to use lines in all fifteen Member States by 2005 will do two things: first, it will take account of the role of shippers and forwarding agents, who need no encouragement to use the railways and, secondly, it will represent a further step towards the completion of the single market in the railway sector in that the railways' exclusive right to use the infrastructure will be somewhat mitigated. Another factor is the question of track charges. We take the view that track charges should be increased in the medium and long term in order to move towards the objective of covering costs. Only if the user pays, i.e. the railway undertakings also bear the cost of operating and maintaining the network, will it be possible to fund network operation and maintenance. Finally, the Committee on Transport voted by a large majority to abolish the derogations for Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg and Great Britain with respect to Northern Ireland. We feel that, first, legislation should be the same in all parts of the Union and, secondly, even in geographically remote areas, which we of course all value, the principles of accuracy and clarity of costs and open access to the network should apply. Allow me to close by stressing once again that we can use our vote in Parliament tomorrow to give a signal. If we adopt the recommendation by the Committee on Transport by a large majority, we will have a real chance of reaching a compromise with the Council during the conciliation procedure which is acceptable to both the Council and Parliament, which goes beyond the common positions and which enables a real move to be made towards liberalising the railway sector, because we all want to strengthen the railways. We want to shift more freight from the roads to the railways, which is why we need a clear compromise with the Council. And we shall only get it if we adopt a clear stance here in Parliament.

Political group: PPE-DE