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 amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community's railways - Amending the proposal of the Commission pursuant to Article 250 (2) of the EC Treaty

2002/0025 (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 amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community's railways

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 amending Council Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community's railways

The Commission's initial proposal concerned the transport of goods by rail. Parliament wishes to go in the direction of the Commission's proposals in this area in order to bring about a speedy, complete opening of the market for rail freight services (amendment 1). It wants the deadline of 2005 for presenting the report on the situation of market opening to be maintained, as provided for under the current Directives, and not to be postponed until 2007. It also wants the report to take account of passenger traffic (amendments 3, 4, 9 and 10 ).

The Commission can accept these amendments (amendment 6 is no longer relevant as amendment 11 has not been adopted).

Parliament also wishes to address the issue of opening up the market for passenger services in the framework of this second railway package. The Commission maintains the stance it already expressed at first reading on this issue and is unable to accept amendments 2, 7 and 8.

Firstly, the Commission recalls that its amended proposal for a regulation on action by Member States concerning public service requirements and the award of public service contracts in passenger transport by rail, road and inland waterway [1] applies in full to the rail sector and provides for the introduction of competition regulated by the award of public service contracts or of exclusive rights.

[1] COM(2002) 107 final, OJ C 151E, 25.6.2002, p. 146.

With regard to the other services that are not concerned by public service contracts or by exclusive rights, the Commission is in the process of examining the arrangements for opening them to competition with a view to presenting proposals in 2003. Opening the market simply on the basis of free access presents numerous problems concerning the protection of passengers, e.g. in respect of integrated reservation services or the funding of public services. In this context, balanced, solidly based solutions must be found and the solutions proposed must be the subject of a detailed impact analysis.

Nevertheless, the Commission welcomes the European Parliament's amendments concerning the opening of passenger traffic to competition, as they send a strong political signal which will provide essential support in the preparation of its future proposals.

Finally, it should be noted that the current legislation [2] enables international groupings of railway undertakings to obtain access and transit rights in order to operate international passenger services. This provision, which has scarcely been used up to now owing to the lack of a proper framework, might attract renewed interest with the transposal since 15 March 2003 of Directives 2001/12/EC [3], 2001/13/EC [4] and 2001/14/EC [5] which now provide a specific, transparent and non-discriminatory framework for capacity allocation and infrastructure charging and which provide for the establishment of a regulatory body in each Member State.

[2] Directive 91/440/EEC, OJ L 237, 24.8.1991, p. 25.

[3] OJ L 75, 15.3.2001, p. 1.

[4] OJ L 75, 15.3.2001, p. 26.

[5] OJ L 75, 15.3.2001, p. 29.

4. CONCLUSION

Pursuant to Article 250(2) of the EC Treaty, the Commission amends its proposals in keeping with the results of Parliament's second reading as set out above.