A4-0412/97

Resolution on the Commission White Paper 'A Strategy for revitalizing the Community's railways' (COM(96)0421 - C4-0452/96) and the Commission communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the trans-European Rail Freight Freeways (COM(97)0242 - C4-0269/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission White Paper (COM(96)0421 - C4-0452/96),

- having regard to the Commission communication (COM(97)0242 - C4-0269/97),

- having regard to the Commission Green Paper on the impact of transport on the environment: a Community strategy for sustainable mobility (COM(92)0046 - C3- 0182/92), the Commission communication on the future development of the common transport policy: a global approach to the construction of a Community framework for sustainable mobility (COM(92)0494 - C3-0001/93), and its resolutions of 17 September 1992 ((OJ C 284, 2.11.1992, p. 164 and p. 176.)) and 18 January 1994 ((OJ C 44, 14.2.1994, p. 53.)) and those of the Council of Transport Ministers on this subject,

- having regard to its resolution of 6 June 1996 on the communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the common transport policy action programme 1995-2000 ((OJ C 181, 24.6.1996, p. 21.)),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the opinion of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A4-0412/97),

A. whereas the positions, decisions, conclusions and proposals of the White Paper are largely in line with the European Community's previous policy in the field of rail transport, the foundations for which were laid by Council Decision 65/271/EEC ((OJ 88, 24.5.1965, p. 1500.)) and Regulation (EEC) No 1191/69 ((OJ L 156, 28.6.1969, p. 1.)),

B. whereas the volume of freight and the share of passengers carried by rail in most markets in the Community as a whole is steadily declining year by year while, at the same time, the volume of freight and the share of passengers carried by road in the Community as a whole is increasing substantially,

C. whereas the reasons enumerated by the White Paper for the decline in the share of passenger and freight traffic accounted for by the railways are fundamental in that they all contribute, to a greater or lesser extent, to the marginalization of rail as a means of transport,

D. whereas most of the specific provisions and measures designed to establish a Community regulatory framework in five basic sectors, as announced by the Commission with a view to revitalizing and developing the railways, are essentially appropriate and endorsable, but whereas here, as everywhere else in the White Paper, too little consideration is given to the idea of intermodal transport, although this all-embracing combination of types of transport could make a very significant contribution to the revival of the railways,

E. whereas rail liberalization should, as with maritime and air transport and telecommunications, proceed in stages in conjunction with the parallel implementation of the necessary accompanying measures, although this should not mean that the ultimate objective of extending free market rules to rail freight and that the international transport of passengers by rail should be unnecessarily slowed down; whereas the impact of these measures on the railway companies should be verified after each stage,

F. whereas although the type, nature and scale of public services are matters to be decided independently by each Member State, the method and procedures by which the Member States compensate public service providers should be transparent and open to Community scrutiny, having regard, in particular, to the provisions of Articles 85 et seq. of the EC Treaty,

G. whereas public-service contracts provide guarantees of transparency and opportunities for scrutiny and should, therefore, be used more generally in connection with the services provided by urban, suburban and regional railways,

H. whereas the idea of freight freeways could be made a reality immediately on the basis of current Community arrangements under Directives 91/440/EEC ((OJ L 237, 24.8.1991, p. 25.)), 95/18/EC ((OJ L 143, 27.6.1995, p. 70.)) and 95/19/EC ((OJ L 143, 27.6.1995, p. 75.)), and whereas they will promote the growth of rail freight and pave the way for the smooth passage from the first to the second phase of rail transport liberalization; whereas in this context the establishment of 'one-stop shops' is a suitable measure for promoting closer cooperation between railway companies in order to improve the efficiency and quality of cross-border railway freight transport,

I. whereas, pending agreement on the method of calculating the cost of using rail infrastructure and of determining arrangements for payment, the freeways may operate on the basis of agreements made by participating infrastructure managers,

J. whereas such a temporary solution means that particular care will be needed in selecting and promoting the first freeways in order to avoid creating two types of freeway: one in which infrastructure managers do not pass on the cost of the infrastructure to the infrastructure user and another in which they do,

K. whereas such a development may lead to a permanent distortion of free competition between railway undertakings and result in the partition of the European rail network,

L. whereas it is surprising that the White Paper avoids addressing or proposing solutions to the severe problems of employment, new working conditions and the training and retraining of railway staff created by the liberalization of access to the national railway networks and the operation of those networks by new private railway companies,

M. whereas those problems should be resolved as a matter of priority as they have a direct bearing on the safety of rail transport,

N. whereas the staff cuts made by certain state railway companies have not served to improve their finances and whereas, as a result, a financial balance can be achieved principally by means of an extensive reorganization of companies (as called for in existing directives) and an increase in productivity,

O. whereas the liberalization of access to railway infrastructures and the resulting competition from new companies will automatically have a positive impact on the sector's competitiveness,

1. Considers that the White Paper is built on solid foundations and constitutes an appropriate basis for a policy of sustainable development of European rail transport by means of gradual liberalization and parallel implementation of the necessary accompanying measures;

2. Stresses that, in the long term, the principal reasons for upgrading the railways as a primary means of transport are the following:

- the need to ensure the completion of the single market,

- the development of trade between the European Union and the countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the concomitant increase in the transport of goods,

- the need to protect the natural and cultural environment of the continent of Europe and the quality of life of its peoples,

- the need to provide, where necessary, for a reorganization of the sector aimed at greater flexibility in access to and use of infrastructure and greater competitiveness in relation to road transport;

3. Emphasizes that, for the reasons set out in paragraph 2, rail infrastructure should be given clear priority in the financing of infrastructures (trans- European networks, Structural Funds, INTERREG, Cohesion Fund, PHARE, EIB);

Extension of the free market economy

4. Declares that, while accepting that, for the railways to be revitalized, and with a view to increasing their share of freight and passenger transport, the objective must be, in practice and in close cooperation with those concerned, to extend free-market rules to the railways and, specifically, to international freight transport, transport of freight within Member States and the international transport of passengers, it nevertheless takes the view that liberalization should be progressive, beginning with the liberalization of international freight transport and followed by domestic freight transport and international passenger transport;

5. Considers that the progressive liberalization of access to railway infrastructure should go hand in hand with the implementation of the accompanying social measures;

6. Calls therefore on the Commission to make an assessment of the application of Directive 91/440/EEC in the Member States and to submit proposals to amend it with a view to progressive liberalization;

7. Takes the view that the Commission should submit proposals in order, firstly, to give railway undertakings the right of free access to railway infrastructure on the basis of an amendment to Article 10(2) of Directive 91/440/EEC for the operation of international freight transport and, secondly, in order to facilitate the simultaneous elaboration and implementation of accompanying measures such as:

- the specification of the financial criteria, including social and economic benefits, to be taken into account in calculating the cost of rail infrastructure and the adoption of the principle that the user of the infrastructure should bear all or part of that cost,

- the institutional separation of the management of rail infrastructure and the operation of rail transport,

- the extension of the provisions of Directive 93/104/EEC concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time ((OJ L 307, 13.12.1993, p. 18.)) to road vehicle drivers and the adoption of other provisions on maximum freight weights and speed limits for road transport,

- the introduction of the first practical steps by the beginning of 1999 with a view to eliminating the distortions of competition which adversely affect rail transport in the areas of VAT on fares and the harmonization of oil tax,

- practical solutions to the distortion of competition between road and rail as set out in the Green Paper 'Towards fair and efficient pricing in transport' (COM(95)0691);

8. Takes the view that the Commission should, alongside the proposals on extending free-market rules to freight transport within Member States and to national and international passenger transport, also submit proposals on accompanying measures such as:

- the elaboration at national and Community level of social policy measures for railway workers,

- the final settlement of matters concerning rail transport proper, such as interoperability of national networks, allocation of train paths, etc.;

- the specification of the terms and conditions under which, if absolutely essential, derogations from the implementation of the rules on competition set out in the Treaty may be granted to railway undertakings;

- maintaining public service by allowing railway companies exemption from competition rules;

- equal treatment, while upholding the subsidiarity principle, between modes of transport, with particular regard to the rules concerning the application of VAT and the provisions governing duty-free sales;

9. Regrets that certain Member States have not yet fully implemented Directive 91/440/EEC and that, in certain cases, there are still unjustified delays in restructuring state railway companies;

10. Calls on the Commission to come forward as soon as possible with a timetable for the progressive implementation of liberalization, particularly in view of the requests set out in paragraphs 7 and 8, bearing in mind the need to prevent distortion of competition and the overall aim of securing a successful future for rail based on the extension of open access;

11. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to implement without delay the priority railway projects selected within the framework of the trans-European networks;

12. Calls on the Commission to press ahead with its work on the charging to the individual modes of transport of their external costs and to submit as soon as possible specific proposals for achieving fair and efficient transport pricing;

13. Calls on the Council and the Commission to make every possible effort to persuade the Member States to transpose as promptly as possible into their national law Directives 95/18/EC on the licensing of railway undertakings and 95/19/EC on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the charging of infrastructure fees and - where still necessary - Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of the Community's railways;

Economic issues

14. Calls on the Commission to draw up guidelines and adopt special rules for the approval of programmes for the reform and restructuring of the national railway companies on the basis of commercial criteria and of the state aid related to those programmes;

15. Takes the view that, as part of the reform and restructuring programmes for the national railway companies approved by the Commission, the Member States should be able to release those companies from the debts they have accumulated hitherto, including those incurred since the entry into force of Directive 91/440/EEC; calls on the Commission to report to Parliament on progress in this respect;

Public services

16. Considers that:

- the practice in the Member States of unilaterally requiring state or private urban, suburban and regional railway undertakings to provide public services in return for non-transparent or non-explicit state compensation is often contrary to the provisions of Regulation (EEC) No 1191/69 as amended by Regulation (EEC) No 1893/91, which lays down detailed terms and conditions for the provision of public services and the method of calculating the amount of compensation to undertakings,

- the system of compensation per se does not provide a ready opportunity for detailed scrutiny by the competent supervisory bodies;

17. Supports the view that governments should be regarded as customers of public transport services which are socially desirable but not commercially viable;

18. Calls, therefore, on the Commission to submit proposals to encourage more general use of public service contracts, as provided for by Regulation (EEC) No 1191/69, as applicable to urban, suburban and regional railways;

19. Welcomes the Commission's intention to review the technical measures needed to improve accessibility for the disabled and the elderly and calls upon it, in conjunction with the Community of European Railways (CER), to draw up such measures at the earliest possible opportunity, including the following features:

- access for disabled people, facilities for families and children and easy access for the carriage of bicycles and luggage;

- guaranteed access to regular rail links with good connections;

these European standards should be combined with possible EU support measures;

Social policy

20. Regrets that the White Paper contains few proposals for successfully tackling the problems relating to employment, working conditions, training and retraining, etc. which railway workers will face once access to rail infrastructure has been liberalized;

21. Calls, therefore, on the Commission to submit proposals as promptly as possible concerning:

- the conditions and the procedure for Community-wide recognition of certificates and diplomas of railway staff,

- the retraining of surplus railway workers so that they may take up new jobs provided by the new railway companies,

- the harmonization at Community level of the working conditions of railway staff,

- the formal and substantive qualifications required and the requisite guarantees that the staff recruited by the new railway companies are fully and properly trained;

22. Calls also on the Commission to propose the requisite structural changes to the operation of the European Social Fund so as to enable it to deal with the problems of unemployment and early retirement of railway staff which the restructuring of rail transport will entail in a number of Member States;

23. Stresses that railway transport has a central role to play with regard to the right to day-to-day mobility for citizens who cannot afford their own cars;

Integration of the national systems

24. Agrees with the Commission's view that the fragmentation of the European railway system into national networks and the consequent diversity of technical specifications, systems and operating conditions, with particular regard to rail infrastructure, are the major impediment to the development of freight transport;

25. Considers that most of the measures proposed by the Commission with a view to integrating the national systems are sound and practicable and are not in breach of the principles of subsidiarity and additionality;

26. Calls on the Commission to submit the relevant proposals for those measures as promptly as possible and, in so doing, to ensure that proposals for high-speed interoperability are not prohibitively costly and that they provide a sound basis for the competitive provision of the goods and services required;

Rail freight freeways

27. Welcomes the Commission proposal concerning the creation of rail freight freeways;

28. Takes the view that freeways may begin operating even if there is as yet no agreement on the question of which criteria are to be used in uniformly calculating the cost of railway infrastructure and who will bear that cost; in this instance, freeways will provide the opportunity of establishing experimental compensatory schemes which will assist in developing a Community approach to infrastructure charging;

29. Takes the view that account must be taken of the potential of intermodal transport in the creation of freight freeways and, in addition, in the renovation of the railways, as it will make a major contribution to their revitalization;

30. Points out to the Commission and the Member States, however, that, because of the difference of opinion referred to above, there is a need for particular care in selecting and promoting the first freight freeways in order to rule out any possibility of a partitioning of the rail network in the European Union; the freeways project must then be implemented in a pragmatic manner, encouraging innovation by infrastructure managers without seeking to impose a uniform freeways model;

31. Calls therefore on the Commission, as a matter of top priority, to make every possible effort to ensure that:

- all the infrastructure managers of the Member States open up the infrastructure networks - especially those leading to and from ports - rapidly and effectively to the railway operators of freight freeways,

- connections be created in future between the various freight freeways to provide the beginnings of a network,

- access to the freight freeways be granted to any operator irrespective of destination and not just to those who are willing to operate between the two farthest points on the freight freeway,

- negotiations with Switzerland take into account the proposals in the White Paper to ensure a fair pricing system for international rail traffic and especially for 'one-stop shops',

- transalpine transport is transferred to the railways and the faster- growing East-West freight traffic is also fully integrated in the freight freeway measures;

32. Calls also on the Commission to draw up and propose certain principles to define the framework for implementing and operating cooperative agreements for creating the rail freeways to be set up by the rail infrastructure managers of the Member States;

33. Stresses that such cooperative agreements between railway undertakings must not contain provisions for revenue pooling and sharing of train operations, as otherwise such agreements would fall within the scope of Article 85 of the EC Treaty;

34. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.