First of all I should like to congratulate the rapporteur on his excellent work on the Commission’s report on the implementation and effects of Directive 96/48/EC concerning the interoperability of the trans-European high-speed rail system. Creating the technical conditions for the interoperability of the European railway networks involves harmonising, between the various networks, the many different systems and components involved in rail transport. The objective is a threefold one: to gradually create the conditions for the uninterrupted movement of trains on the 15 national networks – the free movement objective; to eliminate current high costs and delays in order to improve the competitiveness and reliability of the railways vis-à-vis their competitors – the sustainable mobility objective; and to create the conditions for a single European market in railway rolling stock by harmonising the elements that make up the railways – the economic and technological objective. The objective of the directive before us today was to publish the technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) for six sub-systems – Maintenance, Infrastructure, Energy, Rolling Stock, Operation and Control-Command – beginning the work of standardising components in collaboration with CEN, Cenelec and ETSI, and establishing in each Member State a list of notified bodies instructed to assess the conformity of the components produced by the relevant industries. This report, drawn up pursuant to Directive 96/48/CE, gives an initial assessment of the progress made. It must be noted that four years after the directive was adopted, not one single technical specification for interoperability (TSI) has been drawn up even though interoperability is deemed to be fundamental to the mobility of persons and the effectiveness of trans-European rail systems. The majority of Member States have not, to date, transposed the provisions of this directive into their national legislation. We are a long way from debating the priority to be given to rail! It would, however, be unfair to say that no progress has been made. For one thing, a tripartite body, the EARI (European Association for Railway Interoperability), has been set up and has undertaken the work of identifying and specifying existing technologies, components and procedures, which should culminate in two TSIs in the near future. Moreover, the latest high-speed network investment projects, designed along the lines of Thalys, have, for the first time, made efforts to achieve convergence and technical coherence. Even so, these achievements are still inadequate in terms of the issues at stake. National disparities are a considerable obstacle to the development of rail transport in Europe, in spite of the many advantages of this means of transport in terms of sustainable development, pollution and safety. The figures speak for themselves: in 1970, the railways had a 21% share of the goods transport market; today they have only 8.5%. The trend is the same for passengers, where the market share has dropped from 10% in 1970 to 6%. Where freight is concerned, the railways could quite easily disappear altogether from large areas of the goods transport market. There is no doubt that the closure of large parts of the European network would lead to significant job losses. It is therefore essential to give a fresh boost to interoperability. (The sitting was suspended at 1.20 p.m. and resumed at 3 p.m.) IN THE CHAIR: MR PACHECO PEREIRAVice-President

Political group: PSE