Common Position (EC) No 58/2002 of 27 June 2002 adopted by the Council, acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 251 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, with a view to adopting a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on rail transport statistics
Date: 2002-06-27
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU statistics, carriage of goods, carriage of passengers, data collection, dissemination of EU information, rail transport, regional statistics, statistical method, transport statistics

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/53

COMMON POSITION (EC) No 58/2002

adopted by the Council on 27 June 2002

with a view to adopting Regulation (EC) No . . ./2002 of the European Parliament and of the
Council of . . . on rail transport statistics

(2002/C 275 E/04)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 285 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee (2),

Having consulted the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in
Article 251 of the Treaty (3),

Whereas:

(1) Railways are an important part of

the Community's

transport networks.

(2) The Commission needs statistics on the transport of goods
and passengers by rail in order to monitor and develop the
common transport policy, as well as
transport
elements of policies on the regions and on trans-European
networks.

the

(3) Statistics on rail safety are required by the Commission in
order to prepare and monitor Community actions in the
field of transport safety.

(4) Community statistics on rail transport are also required in
in
order
Article
91/440/EEC of
29 July 1991 on the development of the Community's
railways (4).

the monitoring tasks provided for

of Council Directive

to fulfil
10b

(5) Community statistics on all modes of transport should be
collected according to common concepts and standards,
with the aim of achieving the fullest practicable compara-
bility between transport modes.

(1) OJ C 180 E, 26.6.2001, p. 94.
(2) OJ C 221, 7.8.2001, p. 63.
(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 4 September 2001 (OJ
C 72 E, 21.3.2001, p. 58), Council Common Position of 27 July
2002 and Decision of the European Parliament of . . .
(not yet
published in the Official Journal).

(4) OJ L 237, 24.8.1991, p. 25. Directive as last amended by Directive
2001/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (OJ
L 75, 15.3.2001, p. 1).

(6) The restructuring of

the rail

industry under Directive
91/440/EEC, as well as changes in the type of information
required by the Commission and by other users of
Community statistics on rail transport, renders obsolete
the provisions of Council Directive 80/1177/EEC of
4 December 1980 on statistical returns in respect of
carriage of goods by rail, as part of regional statistics (5)
in relation to the collection of statistics from specified
administrations of main rail networks.

(7) The coexistence of publicly and privately owned railway
undertakings operating in a commercial rail
transport
market requires an explicit specification of the statistical
information which should be provided by all railway
undertakings and disseminated by Eurostat.

standards which

(8) In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity laid down
in Article 5 of the Treaty, the creation of common stat-
istical
the production of
harmonised data
an action which can only be
Such
undertaken
standards should be implemented in each Member State
under the authority of
the bodies and institutions in
charge of producing official statistics.

Community

efficiently

permit

level.

at

is

(9) Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 of 17 February 1997
reference
on
framework for the provisions laid down by this Regu-
lation.

Community

statistics (6)

provides

a

(10) The measures necessary for the implementation of this
Regulation should be
adopted in accordance with
Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying
down the procedures for the exercise of implementing
powers conferred on the Commission (7).

(11) The Statistical Programme Committee

established by
Council Decision 89/382 (EEC/Euratom) of 19 June 1989
establishing a Committee on the Statistical Programmes of
the European Communities (8) has been consulted in
accordance with Article 3 of the said Decision,

(5) OJ L 350, 23.12.1980, p. 23. Directive as last amended by the

1994 Act of Accession.
(6) OJ L 52, 22.2.1997, p. 1.
(7) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.
(8) OJ L 181, 28.6.1989, p. 47.

C 275 E/54

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Objective

Article 4

Data collection

1.
The statistics to be collected are set out in the Annexes to
this Regulation. They shall cover the following types of data:

The objective of this Regulation is to establish common rules
for the production of Community rail transport statistics.

(a) annual statistics on goods transport — detailed reporting

(Annex A);

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation shall cover all railways in the Community.
Each Member State shall report statistics which relate to rail
transport on its national territory. Where a railway undertaking
operates in more than one Member State, the national auth-
orities concerned shall require the undertaking to provide data
separately for each country in which it operates so as to enable
national statistics to be compiled.

Member States may exclude from the scope of this Regulation:

(a) railway undertakings which operate entirely or mainly
including
and similar

installations,

within industrial
harbours;

(b) railway undertakings which mainly provide local tourist

services, such as preserved historical steam railways.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation the following defi-

1.
nitions shall apply:

(a)

‘reporting country’ means the Member State transmitting
data to Eurostat;

(b) ‘national authorities’ means national statistical institutes and
for

in each Member State

other bodies
producing Community statistics;

responsible

(c)

‘railway undertaking’ means any public or private under-
taking which provides services for the transport of goods
and/or passengers by rail.

2.
The definitions referred to in paragraph 1 may be
adapted, and additional definitions needed to ensure harmon-
isation of statistics may be adopted,
in accordance with the
procedure referred to in Article 11(2).

(b) annual statistics on goods transport — simplified reporting

(Annex B);

(c) annual

statistics on passenger

transport — detailed

reporting (Annex C);

(d) annual

statistics on passenger

transport — simplified

reporting (Annex D);

(e) quarterly statistics on goods and passenger

transport

(Annex E);

(f)

regional statistics on goods and passenger transport (Annex
F);

(g) statistics on traffic flows on the rail network (Annex G);

(h) statistics on accidents (Annex H).

simplified

Annexes B and D set out

2.
reporting
requirements, which may be used by Member States as alter-
natives to the normal detailed reporting set out in Annexes A
and C, for undertakings for which the total volume of goods or
passenger transport
is less than 500 million tonne-km or
200 million passenger-km respectively. These thresholds may
be adapted in accordance with the procedure laid down in
Article 11(2).

3. Member States shall also provide a list of the railway
undertakings for which statistics are provided, as specified in
Annex I.

For the purposes of

4.
this Regulation, goods shall be
classified in accordance with Annex J. Dangerous goods shall
additionally be classified in accordance with Annex K.

The contents of

5.
the Annexes may be adapted,
accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 11(2).

in

Article 5

Data sources

1. Member States shall designate a public or private organi-
sation to participate in collecting the data required under this
Regulation.

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/55

The necessary data may be obtained using any combi-

2.
nation of the following sources:

Article 8

Quality of statistics

(a) compulsory surveys;

(b) administrative data, including data collected by regulatory

authorities;

(c) statistical estimation procedures;

(d) data supplied by professional organisations in the rail

industry;

(e) ad hoc studies.

1.
In order to assist Member States in maintaining the
quality of statistics in the domain of rail transport, Eurostat
shall develop and publish methodological recommendations.
These
the best
practices of national authorities, of railway undertakings and
of professional organisations for the railway industry.

recommendations

account of

shall

take

2.
The quality of the statistical data shall be evaluated by
Eurostat. To this end, on request by Eurostat, Member States
shall supply information on the methods used in producing the
statistics.

3.
The national authorities shall take measures for the coor-
dination of the data sources used and to ensure the quality of
the statistics transmitted to Eurostat.

Article 9

Report

Article 6

Transmission of statistics to Eurostat

1. Member States shall transmit to Eurostat the statistics
referred to in Article 4.

The arrangements

2.
the statistics
referred to in Article 4 shall be laid down in accordance
with the procedure referred to in Article 11(2).

transmission of

for

three

years,

the quality evaluation referred to in Article 8.

the
After data have been collected over
Commission shall send a report to the European Parliament
and to the Council on experience acquired in the work
carried out under this Regulation accompanied,
if necessary,
by appropriate proposals. That report shall include the results
of
It shall
evaluate the impact on the quality of rail transport statistics
of the application to this Regulation of the provisions on the
confidentiality of statistics laid down in Regulation (EC) No
322/97. It shall also evaluate the benefits of the availability
of statistics in this domain, the costs of obtaining such statistics
and the burden on enterprises.

Article 7

Dissemination

Article 10

Implementing procedures

1.
Community statistics based on the data specified in
Annexes A-H to this Regulation shall be disseminated by
Eurostat. In this context, and in view of the characteristics of
the European railway market, data deemed to be confidential
under Article 13(1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 322/97 may
be disclosed only if:

(a) the data are already available to the public in the Member

States; or

(b) the explicit approval for such disclosure has been given in

advance by the undertakings concerned.

The national authorities shall make a request to such under-
takings for permission to disclose the required data and shall
inform Eurostat of the result of this request when the data are
transmitted to Eurostat.

The following implementing measures
accordance with the procedure specified in Article 11(2):

shall be taken in

(a) adaptation of
(Article 4);

the

thresholds

for

simplified reporting

(b) adaptation of the definitions and adoption of additional

definitions (Article 3);

(c) adaptation of the contents of the annexes (Article 4);

(d) arrangements for transmitting data to Eurostat (Article 6);

The information reported under Annex I shall not be

2.
disseminated.

(e) definition of the guidelines for the reports on the quality

and comparability of the results (Articles 8 and 9).

C 275 E/56

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

Article 11

Procedure

Article 12

Directive 80/1177/EEC

1.
The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical
Programme Committee instituted by Article 1 of Council
Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom.

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and
7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the
provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC
shall be set at three months.

3.

The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

1. Member States shall provide results for the year 2002 in
accordance with Directive 80/1177/EEC.

Directive 80/1177/EEC is hereby repealed with effect

2.
from 1 January 2003.

Article 13

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at . . .

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/57

ANNUAL STATISTICS ON GOODS TRANSPORT — DETAILED REPORTING

ANNEX A

List of variables and units of measurement

goods transported in:
— tonnes
— tonne-km
goods train movements in:
— train-km
number of intermodal transport units carried in:
— number
TEU (twenty-foot-equivalent-unit) (for containers and swap bodies)

Reference period

Frequency

year

every year

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table A1: goods transported, by type of transport
Table A2: goods transported, by type of goods (Annex J)
Table A3: goods transported (for international and transit traffic) by
country of loading and country of unloading
Table A4: goods transported, by category of dangerous goods (Annex K)
Table A5: goods transported, by type of consignment (optional)
Table A6: goods transported in intermodal transport units, by type of
transport and by type of transport unit
Table A7: number of loaded intermodal transport units carried, by type
of transport and by type of transport unit
Table A8: number of empty intermodal transport units carried, by type
of transport and by type of transport unit
Table A9: goods train movements

Deadline for transmission of data

5 months after end of reference period

First reference period for tables A1, A2
and A3

First reference period for tables A4, A5,
A6, A7, A8 and A9

2003

2004

Notes

1. Type of transport is broken down as follows:

— national
— international-incoming
— international-outgoing
— transit

2. Type of consignment may be broken down as follows:

— full train loads
— full wagon loads
— other

3. Type of transport unit is broken down as follows:

— containers and swap bodies
— semi-trailers (unaccompanied)
— road vehicles (accompanied)

4. For Table A3, Eurostat

and the Member States may make
arrangements to facilitate consolidation of data originating from
to ensure the
undertakings
coherence of these data.

in other Member States,

in order

5. For Table A4, Member States shall indicate which categories of traffic,

if any, are not covered by the data.

6. For tables A2-A8 where complete information on transit transport is

not available, Member States shall report all available data.

C 275 E/58

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

ANNUAL STATISTICS ON GOODS TRANSPORT — SIMPLIFIED REPORTING

ANNEX B

List of variables and units of measurement

goods transported in

— tonnes

— tonne-km

goods train movements in:

— train-km

Year

every year

Reference period

Frequency

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table B1: goods transported, by type of transport

Table B2: goods train movements

Deadline for transmission of data

5 months after end of reference period

First reference period

2004

Notes

Type of transport is broken down as follows:

— national

— international-incoming

— international-outgoing

— transit

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/59

ANNUAL STATISTICS ON PASSENGER TRANSPORT — DETAILED REPORTING

ANNEX C

List of variables and units of measurement

passengers transported in:

— number of passengers

— passenger-km

passenger train movements in:

— train-km

Year

every year

Reference period

Frequency

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table C1: passengers transported, by type of transport (provisional data,
number of passengers only)

Table C2:
international passengers transported, by country of embar-
kation and by country of disembarkation (provisional data, number of
passengers only)

Table C3: passengers transported, by type of transport (final consolidated
data)

international passengers transported, by country of embar-
Table C4:
kation and by country of disembarkation (final consolidated data,
number of passengers only)

Table C5: passenger train movements

Deadline for transmission of data

8 months after end of reference period (Tables C1, C2, C5)

14 months after end of reference period (Tables C3, C4)

First reference period

2004

Notes

1. Type of transport is broken down as follows:

— national

— international

2. For Tables C1 and C2, Member States may report provisional data
based on ticket sales in the reporting country or any other available
source. For Tables C3 and C4, Member States shall report
final
consolidated data including information from ticket sales outside
the reporting country. This information may be obtained either
directly from the national authorities of other countries or through
international compensation arrangements for tickets.

C 275 E/60

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

ANNUAL STATISTICS ON PASSENGER TRANSPORT — SIMPLIFIED REPORTING

ANNEX D

List of variables and units of measurement

passengers transported in:

— number of passengers

— passenger-km

passenger train movements in:

— train-km

Year

every year

Reference period

Frequency

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table D1: passengers transported

Table D2: passenger train movements

Deadline for transmission of data

8 months after end of reference period

First reference period

2004

Notes

For Table D1, Member States may report data based on ticket sales in the
reporting country or any other available source.

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/61

ANNEX E

QUARTERLY STATISTICS ON GOODS AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT

List of variables and units of measurement

goods transported in:

— tonnes

— tonne-km

passengers transported in:

— number of passengers

— passenger-km

Quarter

every quarter

Reference period

Frequency

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table E1: goods transported

Table E2: passengers transported

Deadline for transmission of data

3 months after end of reference period

First reference period

First quarter of 2004

Notes

1. Tables E1 and E2 may be reported on the basis of provisional data,
including estimates. For Table E2, Member States may report data
based on ticket
in the reporting country or any other
available source.

sales

2. These statistics shall be supplied for the undertakings covered by

Annexes A and C.

C 275 E/62

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

ANNEX F

REGIONAL STATISTICS ON GOODS AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT

List of variables and units of measurement

goods transported in:

Reference period

Frequency

— tonnes

passengers transported in:

— number of passengers

one year

every 5 years

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table F1: national goods transport by region of loading and region of
unloading (NUTS 2)

Table F2:
unloading (NUTS 2)

international goods transport by region of

loading and

Table F3: national passenger transport by region of embarkation and
region of disembarkation (NUTS 2)

Table F4: international passenger transport by region of embarkation and
region of disembarkation (NUTS 2)

Deadline for transmission of data

12 months after end of reference period

First reference period

2005

Notes

1. Where the place of loading or unloading (Tables F1, F2) or embar-
is outside the European

kation or disembarkation (Tables F3, F4)
Economic Area, Member States shall report only the country.

2. In order to assist Member States in the preparation of these tables,
Eurostat shall provide Member States with a list of UIC station codes
and the corresponding NUTS codes.

3. For Tables F3 and F4, Member States may report data based on ticket

sales or any other available source.

4. These statistics shall be supplied for the undertakings covered by

Annexes A and C.

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/63

ANNEX G

STATISTICS ON TRAFFIC FLOWS ON THE RAIL NETWORK

List of variables and units of measurement

goods transport:

— number of trains

passenger transport:

— number of trains

other (service trains, etc.) (optional):

— number of trains

Reference period

Frequency

one year

every 5 years

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table G1: goods transport, by network segment

Table G2: passenger transport, by network segment

Table G3: other (service trains, etc.), by network segment (optional)

Deadline for transmission of data

18 months after end of reference period

First reference period

2005

Notes

1. Member States shall define a set of network segments to include at
least the rail TEN on their national territory. They shall communicate
to Eurostat:

— the geographical coordinates and other data needed to identify
and map each network segment as well as the links between
segments;

— information on the characteristics (including the capacity) of the

trains using each network segment.

2. Each network segment which is part of

the rail Trans-European
shall be identified by means of an additional
in order to enable traffic on the rail

Network (TEN)
attribute in the data record,
TEN to be quantified.

C 275 E/64

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

ANNEX H

STATISTICS ON ACCIDENTS

List of variables and units of measurement — number of accidents (Tables H1, H2)

— number of persons killed (Table H3)

— number of persons seriously injured (Table H4)

Reference period

Frequency

Year

every year

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

Table H1: number of accidents, by type of accident

Table H2: number of accidents involving the transport of dangerous
goods

Table H3: number of persons killed, by type of accident and by category
of person

Table H4: number of persons seriously injured, by type of accident and
by category of person

Deadline for transmission of data

5 months after end of reference period

First reference period

2004

Note

1. Type of accident is broken down as follows:

— collisions (excluding level-crossing accidents)

— derailments

— accidents involving level-crossings

— accidents to persons caused by rolling stock in motion

— fires in rolling stock

— others

— total

The type of accident refers to the primary accident

2. Table H2 has the following breakdown:

— total number of accidents involving at least one railway vehicle
transporting dangerous goods, as defined by the list of goods
covered by Annex K

— number of such accidents in which dangerous goods are released

3. Category of person is broken down as follows:

— passengers

— employees (including contractors)

— others

— total

4. The data in Tables H1-H4 shall be provided for all railways covered

by this Regulation.

5. During the first five years of application of this Regulation, Member
States may report these statistics according to national definitions, if
data conforming to harmonised definitions (adopted according to the
procedure of Article 11 paragraph 2) are not available.

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/65

ANNEX I

LIST OF RAILWAY UNDERTAKINGS

List of variables and units of measurement

see below

Reference period

Frequency

List of tables with the breakdown for each
table

one year

every year

see below

Deadline for transmission of data

5 months after end of reference period

First reference period

2003

Note

I1.1.1

I1.1.2

I1.1.3

I1.1.4

I1.2.1

I1.2.2

I1.2.3

I1.2.4

I1.3.1

I1.3.2

I1.3.3

I1.3.4

The information listed below (Table I1) shall be supplied for each railway
undertaking for which data are provided according to Annexes A-H.

This information shall be used

— to check which undertakings are covered by the tables in Annexes

A-H

— to validate the coverage of Annexes A and C in relation to total rail

transport activity

Table I1

Identification of data source

Reporting country

Reference year

Name of undertaking (optional)

Country in which undertaking is based

Type of activities

Freight transport: international

Freight transport: national

Passenger transport: international

Passenger transport: national

Data included in Annexes A-H

Annex A

Annex B

Annex C

Annex D

Annex E

Annex F

Annex G

Annex H

Level of transport activity (optional)

Total freight transport (tonnes)

Total freight transport (tonne-km)

Total passenger transport (passengers)

Total passenger transport (passenger-km)

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

yes/no

C 275 E/66

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

ANNEX J

CLASSIFICATION OF GOODS

The following groups of goods shall be used until such time as a new classification is laid down according to the
procedure specified in Article 11, paragraph 2.

Groups of goods

NST/R chapter

NST/R groups

Description

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

0

01

Cereals

02, 03

00, 06

05

04, 09

Potatoes, other fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables

Live animals, sugar beet

Wood and cork

Textiles, textile articles and man-made fibres, other raw animal
and vegetable materials

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

11, 12, 13, 14,
16, 17

Foodstuff and animal fodder

18

Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits and fats

21, 22, 23

Solid mineral fuels

31

Crude petroleum

32, 33, 34

Petroleum products

41, 46

45

Iron ore, iron and steel waste and blast furnace dust

Non-ferrous ores and waste

51, 52, 53, 54,
55, 56

Metal products

64, 69

Cement, lime, manufactured building materials

61, 62, 63, 65

Crude and manufactured minerals

71, 72

83

Natural and chemical fertilisers

Coal chemicals, tar

81, 82, 89

Chemicals other than coal chemicals and tar

84

Paper pulp and waste paper

91, 92, 93

Transport equipment, machinery, apparatus, engines, whether
or not assembled, and parts thereof

94

95

96, 97

99

Manufactures of metal

Glass, glassware, ceramic products

Leather, textile, clothing, other manufactured articles

Miscellaneous articles

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/67

ANNEX K

CLASSIFICATION OF DANGEROUS GOODS

1.

2.

3.

Explosives

Gases, compressed, liquefied or dissolved under pressure

Flammable liquids

4.1. Flammable solids

4.2. Substances liable to spontaneous combustion

4.3. Substances which, in contact with water, emit flammable gases

5.1. Oxidising substances

5.2. Organic peroxides

6.1. Toxic substances

6.2. Substances liable to cause infections

7.

8.

9.

Radioactive material

Corrosives

Miscellaneous dangerous substances

Note: these categories are those defined in the regulations concerning the international carriage of dangerous goods by
rail, usually known as the RID, as adopted under Council Directive 96/49/EC of 23 July 1996 on the approximation of
the laws of the Member States with regard to the transport of dangerous goods by rail and subsequent amendments (1).

(1) OJ L 235, 17.9.1996, p. 25. Directive as last amended by Commission Directive 2001/6/EC (OJ L 30, 1.2.2001, p. 42).

C 275 E/68

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

12.11.2002

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

Having regard to Article 285 of the EC Treaty, and in the framework of the codecision procedure in
accordance with Article 251 of the EC Treaty, the Council adopted its common position on a draft
Regulation on rail transport statistics on 27 June 2002.

In taking its position, the Council took account of the opinion of the European Parliament in its first
reading of 4 September 2001 (1) and the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee delivered on
30 May 2001 (2). The Committee of the Regions waived its right to deliver an Opinion (3).

The aim of the draft Regulation is to ensure the provision of reliable, comprehensive and harmonised
Community statistics on rail transport in order to monitor developments in the rail industry and to
support the preparation of future actions. This would also contribute significantly to increased safety in
rail transport. The Regulation thus defines a set of common rules for rail transport statistics together
with detailed specifications for a set of statistical tables to be provided. It aims to replace Council
Directive 80/1177/EEC.

II. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

The Council wholeheartedly supports the general aim and content of the Commmission's proposal. It
considers, notably in view of the recent developments of the legislative framework for the development
transport are indeed a
of the Community's railways that
necessary and valuable tool for an improved analysis of the developments in the rail
industry and
for a better planning of future actions, and furthermore can provide a contribution to an increased
safety for this mode of transport.

improved Community statistics on rail

In the course of its proceedings, Council was confronted with the requirement that the customary
safeguards for the confidentiality of statistical data of individual enterprises be properly ensured. Hence,
Council's common position provides (in its Article 7) for stricter confidentiality provisions for using and
distributing statistical data by Eurostat: railway undertakings must now be asked in advance for their
permission to distribute data as specified in Annexes A–H. The provisions on the dissemination of such
data are now based on Article 13(1) regarding statistical confidentiality of Council Regulation (EC) No
322/97 on Community statistics.

The Council's common position furthermore contains also the following changes:

— As a consequence of the change in Article 7, a provision was added to Article 9: the Report which
the Commission should present by virtue of that article three years after the entry into force of the
Regulation should now also contain an evaluation of the consequences of the ‘impact on the quality
of rail transport statistics of the application to this Regulation of the provisions on the confiden-
tiality of statistics laid down in Regulation (EC) No 322/97’.

— In order to prevent discrimination between smaller railway undertakings in different Member States
the third indent of Article 2 was deleted; the provision in question exempted operators from all
reporting requirements if their activities accounted collectively for less than 2 % of the national
market – thereby effectively discriminating against smaller railway undertakings operating in small
national markets.

Instead, an absolute threshold was added to Article 4(2), allowing smaller companies falling under
that threshold to fulfil simplified reporting requirements.

(1) Not yet published in the Official Journal.
(2) OJ C 221, 7.8.2001, p. 63.
(3) Letter of 18 April 2001.

12.11.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 275 E/69

The clear advantage of these changes lies in the fact that more information becomes available on
new and emerging operators which are often small
in size (which would have been exempted
alltogether from reporting requirements in the original proposal).

— Several minor changes were made to the Annexes, concerning dates of implementation of the
different reporting requirements, making certain reporting requirements optional rather than obli-
gatory in order
to address confidentiality concerns, and changes necessary to improve the
consistency with the proposed rail safety directive (COM(2002) 21 final).

Amendments of the European Parliament

The Council accepted three of the five amendments adopted by the European Parliament: amendments 1, 2
and 5.

The Council rejected amendment 3, which requested the collection of additional statistics on investments
in rail network infrastructure, as well as amendment 4, which requested a more detailed breakdown of the
type of passenger trains used in the statistics. Council felt, that the benefits stemming from the collection
of such detailed information did not outweigh the considerable administrative burden which this additional
requirement would place on railway undertakings and authorities concerned.