OPINION OF THE COMMISSION pursuant to Article 251(2), third subparagraph, point (c) of the EC Treaty on the European Parliament's amendments to the Council's common position regarding the SECOND RAILWAY PACKAGE with a view to the adoption of a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety on the Community's 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 and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification - Amending the proposal of the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty

2002/0022 (COD)

OPINION OF THE COMMISSION pursuant to Article 251(2), third subparagraph, point (c) of the EC Treaty on the European Parliament's amendments to the Council's common position regarding the SECOND RAILWAY PACKAGE with a view to the adoption of a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety on the Community's 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 and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification

Article 251(2), third subparagraph, point (c) of the EC Treaty provides that the Commission is to deliver an opinion on the amendments proposed by the European Parliament at second reading.

The Commission sets out its opinion below on the amendments proposed by Parliament.

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)] : // 24.1.2002

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

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

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

Date of adoption of the common position: // 26.6.2003

On 23 October 2003, Parliament adopted at second reading a resolution containing the following amendments to the common position for the individual texts:

- 28 amendments to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety on the Community's 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 and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification;

- 4 amendments to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 96/48/EC and Directive 2001/16/EC on the interoperability of the trans-European rail system;

- 32 amendments to the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a European Railway Agency;

- 9 amendments to the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community's railways.

2. PURPOSE OF THE PROPOSALS

There are four related legislative proposals:

- A proposal for a directive on safety of the railways which defines the basic characteristics of the safety systems for the infrastructure manager and for the railway undertakings. The aim is to develop a common approach to safety and establish a common system for the issue, content and validity of the safety certificates. The proposal also aims to introduce the principle of independent technical inquiries in the event of accidents, in line with the situation in other sectors.

- An amendment to the interoperability Directives 96/48/EC and 2001/16/EC. In addition to the adaptations required by previous proposals concerning the interoperability directives, this primarily concerns ensuring the consistency of the scope as regards the network on which access will be open and the network on which the interoperability rules will have to apply.

- A proposal for a regulation setting up a European Railway Agency to provide technical support for the work on interoperability and safety. The Agency's areas of activity would be, firstly, the development of common safety standards and the development and management of a system to monitor safety performance and, secondly, the long-term management of the system of establishing, registering and monitoring the technical specifications of interoperability.

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

3. Opinion of the Commission on the amendments by the European Parliament

Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on safety on the Community's 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 and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification

Parliament has adopted a number of amendments designed to clarify certain provisions of the text (amendments 1, 12 and 24) or of its objectives (amendments 41, 42 and 7), and of its scope in relation to other Community texts that already exist or are in preparation (amendments 2, 5 and 50).

Parliament also wishes to clarify certain provisions concerning national safety rules and their examination at Community level in order to verify, firstly, whether they comply with the common safety targets and, secondly, to ensure that they do not constitute a disguised restriction of market access (amendments 3, 46, 47, 21).

Amendments 44, 18 and 25 are designed to improve the transparency of procedures and the accessibility of the rules.

The proposed solution regarding the price to be paid for access to the training facilities is satisfactory (amendment 48).

Amendment 49 is acceptable as it ensures greater clarity regarding statistics on accidents.

The Commission supports all these amendments.

However, the Commission is unable to accept amendment 43, since it is a text of an explanatory nature on the scope of the directive, which would be better suited to the recitals, where it already figures (see amendment 2).

Nor is it possible to incorporate amendments concerning items covered in other parts of the text or in existing Community texts, or items which will be taken into account in the draft directive on licences for train drivers (amendments 31 and 37).

The Commission cannot accept amendments 14, 15, 16, 23 and 32 designed to reduce systematically the deadlines for drafting texts. These deadlines had already been considerably shortened by the Council and it is important to set a realistic calendar, adapted to the budgetary possibilities that will be decided for the Agency, which does not overload the Agency to the point of dooming it to failure from the outset.

It is not possible either to include amendment 8, as the directive is not intended to harmonise rules but to define common standards that must be met, leaving Member States the possibility of retaining or setting a higher standard, subject to compliance with the principles of transparency and non-discrimination.

Amendment 27 creates confusion, as the purpose of the Article is to ensure access to the training facilities for staff accompanying trains.