WRITTEN QUESTION E-0311/04 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. 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.
Date: 2004-02-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, aid to undertakings, carriage of goods, cessation of trading, common transport policy, rail transport, transport company

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/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?

Under what conditions was this EUR 500 000 awarded? Can the recipient company keep this sum

3.
now that its activities have ceased? If so, why?

Are there other companies that have received such forms of encouragement or to whom payment of

4.
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,
ember 2003.

January 2004; Transport & Environment Bulletin, No 124, Dec-

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.

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Official Journal of the European Union

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3.4.2004

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.

(2004/C 84 E/0418)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0324/04

by W.G. van Velzen (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(3 February 2004)

Subject: New Belgian levy on Netherlands and German electricity distribution companies for use of the

Belgian high-voltage grid when importing electricity from France

According to an article published in the Financieel Dagblad of 20 January 2004, Belgium is imposing a
new levy on Netherlands and German electricity distribution companies for use of the Belgian high-voltage
grid when importing electricity from France.

Is the Commission aware of this report, and is the substance of the Financieel Dagblad article

1.
correct?

Does the Commission consider that Belgium is permitted to impose a new levy for the use of the

2.
Belgian high-voltage grid by Netherlands and Germany? If so, on the basis of what article?

3.

If not, what action does the Commission intend to take?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(4 March 2004)

Having looked into this matter, it would seem that the Belgian Federal Government does intend to impose
specific charges on cross-border transits of electricity.

At this point in time, it is therefore merely an intention.

If this were to materialise, and the system operator was obliged to levy this type of charge, it goes without
saying that the Commission would initiate the usual action to verify the compatibility of such a measure
with the internal market and the inter-TSO (Transmission System Operator) compensation mechanism
recently introduced which makes it possible for the first time to eliminate in the EU any charge on
individual transactions and, as from 1 July 2004, with Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 1228/
2003 of 26 June 2003 on conditions for access to the network for cross-border exchanges in electricity (1).

Pursuant to Article 4(5) of that regulation,
transactions for declared transits of electricity’.

‘there shall be no specific network charge on individual

The Commission will keep an eye on this matter and will do everything in its power to prevent the
establishment of national mechanisms which might adversely affect intra-Community trade.

(1) OJ L 176, 15.7.2003.