COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a directive amending Council directive 96/48/EC and directive 2001/16/EC on the interoperability of the trans-European rail system

2002/0023 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC Treaty concerning the common position of the Council on the adoption of a directive amending Council directive 96/48/EC and directive 2001/16/EC on the interoperability of the trans-European rail system

1. BACKGROUND

Date of transmission of the proposal to Parliament and the Council: (documents COM(2002) 21 final - 2002/0022 (COD) COM(2002) 22 final - 2002/0023 (COD) COM(2002) 23 final - 2002/0024 (COD) COM(2002) 25 final - 2002/0025 (COD)): // 25.1.2002

Date of the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee: // 19.9.2002

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament on first reading: // 14.1.2003

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: // Not applicable

Date of adoption of the common position: // 25.6.2003

2. SUBJECT OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL

There are four related legislative proposals:

- A proposal for the amendment of Directive 91/440 to extend infrastructure access rights to include rail freight services within a Member State and to speed up the opening up of the market.

- A proposal for a Directive on rail safety concerned with definition of the main elements of safety systems for infrastructure managers and railway undertakings. The aim is to develop a common approach to safety and to put in place a common system for the issuing, content and validity of safety certificates. Lastly, the aim is to introduce, as in other sectors, the principle of the independence of technical investigations in the event of accidents.

- A proposal for a Regulation creating a European Rail Agency to provide technical support for interoperability and safety work. Its areas of action would be, firstly, the development of common safety standards and the development and management of a system for monitoring safety performance and, secondly, the long-term management of the system for the establishment, registration and monitoring of technical specifications for interoperability.

- An amendment to the interoperability Directives 96/48/EC and 2001/16/EC. Beyond the adjustments required by the previous proposals for the interoperability directives, the main aim is to ensure coherence of the fields of application between the network in which access will be opened up and the network in which the interoperability rules will have to apply.

3. COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION

3.2 Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the safety of Community railways and amending Council Directive 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and Directive 2001/14/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity, the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification

Consideration of Parliament's opinion

Several amendments by Parliament on which the Commission had expressed a favourable opinion in principle have been incorporated by the Council, sometimes with a different wording. This is the case, for example, with the provision requiring a safety certificate for infrastructure managers (amendment 37, Article 10a), the possibility of designating binational safety authorities (amendments 14, 50 and 85, Article 3(g)), as well as the strengthening of cooperation between investigating bodies in the event of an accident (amendment 57, Articles 20 and 21) and the definition of the concept of an accident (amendment 16, Article 3).

Other amendments have been adopted only in part or with a wording which, while not exactly the same as in the Parliament's amendments, is very close to it. These concern above all the scope of the directive (amendment 11, Article 3), the definition of Common Safety Objectives (amendments 12 and 23, Article 3), the procedure for issuing safety certificates to railway undertakings (amendments 33 and 79, Article 10), the question of training services (amendments 43 and 46, Article 12) and criteria concerning the independence of the investigating body in the event of an accident vis-à-vis the safety authority (amendment 56, Article 20). The Commission also supports this wording.

With regard to the national safety rules following the adoption of the Common Safety Objectives at Community level, the common position's approach (Article 8) is very different from that of Parliament. The latter supported the Commission's initial proposal and even called for going further by establishing a prior authorisation system for national rules (amendments 29 to 31). While it retains the principle of examining draft national rules and the possibility, where appropriate, of questioning them if they do not enable the levels required by the Common Security Objectives to be achieved, if they are incompatible with a TSI, or if they constitute a means of disguised discrimination, the common position has however not adopted the prior authorisation system. The Commission has accepted the Council's text, since it provides every guarantee for a transparent Community examination of draft national rules, and enables the Commission to question a national rule.

New provisions introduced by the Council

The Council has reduced the scope of Article 12 concerning the recognition of staff, which means it has not been possible to consider amendments 41, 51 to 54 and 97. That is linked to the Commission's intention to reconsider this question in more detail following a broad consultation of the parties concerned, in particular the social partners who are working on the subject. The Commission has confirmed (see statement in point 5), firstly, that it is preparing a proposal on driver licensing, and secondly, that it supported the work of the social partners on working conditions, in particular as regards driving and rest times for drivers and on-board staff. This new Commission proposal should make it possible to meet the concerns expressed in amendments 5, 78, 47, 62 and 87.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The Commission supports the texts of the common position.

However, as regards the Agency, the Commission would like to draw attention to the forthcoming adoption of the standard provisions for all agencies following the entry into force of the new Financial Regulation.

5. STATEMENTS BY THE COMMISSION

The Commission entered the following statements in the minutes of the Transport Council meeting of 28 March 2003:

- "The Commission intends to present by the end of 2003 to the European Parliament and the Council a proposal relating to the introduction of a European driving licence for train drivers. Besides, the Commission fully supports and encourages the work in progress in the framework of the European Social Dialogue by the social partners, in accordance with Article 139 of the Treaty, concerning the harmonisation of driving times and rest periods for train drivers and staff accompanying trains.

- The Commission declares that the final budgetary needs for the European Railway Agency depend on a clear agreement on the competencies of this Agency between the Council and the European Parliament. These needs, of which a first assessment has been made in the financial statement attached to the legislative proposal, will have to be translated in the annual budgetary requests tabled by the Commission to the Council and the Parliament acting as the budgetary authority. A precise estimate of these needs for 2004-2006 can only be made once the codecision procedure has been completed.

- The arrangements laid down in paragraphs 4 and 5 of Article 8 of the Directive on safety do not constitute a system of prior authorisation."