EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 84/359

(2004/C 84 E/0417)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0311/04

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(6 February 2004)

Subject: Discontinuation of the activities of the rail freight company Ikea Rail within two years of its foundation and the status of the EU subsidy of EUR 500 000 awarded to this experiment

1. Is the Commission aware that the railway company Ikea Rail, which began operating a freight service between Älmhult and Duisburg on 27 June 2002 and is linked to the home furnishing store ikea, which trades in a number of European countries, discontinued its activities on 15 January 2004?

2. Did the Commission award a subsidy of EUR 500 000 to Ikea Rail with the intention that this company should serve as a model for how open access to a liberalised pan-European rail freight network could be put into practice?

3. Under what conditions was this EUR 500 000 awarded? Can the recipient company keep this sum now that its activities have ceased? If so, why?

4. Are there other companies that have received such forms of encouragement or to whom payment of this kind has already been made?

5. Does the Commission intend again in the future to subsidise firms hoping to take advantage of the liberalisation of cross-border rail freight transport? How is the Commission to prevent itself from again subsidising unsuccessful experiments and thereby serving only to cover the losses incurred by risky projects?

Sources: Op de Rails, No 2004-1, January 2004; Transport & Environment Bulletin, No 124, December 2003.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(11 March 2004)

The subvention to IKEA Rail AB has been granted by the Commission under a funding programme for combined transport, the Pilot Actions for Combined Transport (PACT), based on Council Regulation (EC) No 2196/98 of 1 October 1998 concerning the granting of Community financial assistance for actions of an innovative nature to promote combined transport (1). Besides IKEA, many companies from all Member States have benefited from PACT funding. The PACT programme came to an end in 2001, and is now replaced by the Marco Polo Programme under Regulation (EC) No 1382/2003 of the Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2003 on the granting of Community financial assistance to improve the environmental performance of the freight transport system (2).

IKEA Rail got the subvention to help it start this service, given the high risks of starting up a new intermodal service with its own traction and own responsibilities in today's European rail market. The problems and costs associated with the running of the service, especially the costs caused by the lack of interoperability between the different national rail systems, were much higher than anticipated. IKEA Rail therefore stopped operating the service, and the Commission was duly informed. The Commission contributed to the costs of the IKEA project in line with contractual obligations resulting from Regulation (EC) No 2196/98 and paid a total subsidy amounting to EUR 235 925,37.

The Commission is not of the opinion that the IKEA Rail experience has been ‘unhappy’. The IKEA Rail shuttle between Sweden and the Ruhr area in Germany was taken over by another private railway undertaking, ‘RAG Bahn und Hafen’, which operate the service now in collaboration with Intercontainer-Interfrigo. Thus, the IKEA Rail experience partly funded with Community money proved to be valuable as a significant volume of goods has been taken off the road and put on the railways.

Additionally, the IKEA project was essential to identify the problems of market entry and point to concrete solutions and actions to overcome them. The Commission will therefore, in the Marco Polo Programme, continue this kind of risk funding to companies willing to pioneer new solutions. Building on PACT experience, all projects funded through the Marco Polo Programme will be subject to rigorous evaluation concerning their commercial and financial soundness.

(1) OJ L 277, 14.10.1998.

(2) OJ L 196, 2.8.2003.