Common Position (EC) No 12/2008 of 3 March 2008 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 the adoption of a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2004/49/EC on safety on the Community's railways (Railway Safety Directive) (Text with EEA relevance)
Date: 2008-03-03
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: European Union Agency for Railways, approximation of laws, maintenance, rail network, rail transport, trans-European network, transport safety, vehicle on rails

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COMMON POSITION (EC) No 12/2008

adopted by the Council on 3 March 2008

with a view to adopting Directive 2008/…/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of …
amending Directive 2004/49/EC on safety on the Community's railways (Railway Safety Directive)

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2008/C 122 E/02)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Com-
munity, and in particular Article 71(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and
Social Committee (1),

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in
Article 251 of the Treaty (2),

Whereas:

(1) With a view to pursuing the efforts to create a single
market in rail transport services, the European Parliament
and the Council have adopted Directive 2004/49/EC (3)
establishing a common regulatory framework for railway
safety.

(2)

Originally, authorisation procedures for placing in service
railway vehicles were dealt with by Council Directive
96/48/EC of 23 July 1996 on the interoperability of the
trans-European high-speed rail system (4) and Directive
2001/16/EC of
the
Council of 19 March 2001 on the interoperability of the
conventional rail system (5) for new or upgraded parts of
the Community rail system, and Directive 2004/49/EC
In accordance with better
for vehicles already in use.

the European Parliament and of

(1) OJ C 256, 27.10.2007, p. 39.
(2) Opinion of the European Parliament of 29 November 2007 (not yet
published in the Official
Journal), Council Common Position of
3 March 2008 and Position of the European Parliament of … (not yet
published in the Official Journal).

(3) Directive 2004/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council
of 29 April 2004 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 (Railway Safety Directive) (OJ L 164, 30.4.2004,
p. 44). Corrected version in OJ L 220, 21.6.2004, p. 16.

(4) OJ L 235, 17.9.1996, p. 6. Directive as last amended by Commission

Directive 2007/32/EC (OJ L 141, 2.6.2007, p. 63).

(5) OJ L 110, 20.4.2001, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Commission

Directive 2007/32/EC.

regulation, and with a view to simplifying and moder-
nising Community legislation, all provisions regarding
authorisations for placing railway vehicles in service
should be incorporated in a single legal text. Therefore,
the current Article 14 of Directive 2004/49/EC should be
deleted and a new provision regarding authorisation of
placing in service vehicles already in use should be
included in Directive 2008/…/EC of
the European
Parliament and of the Council of … on the interoper-
ability of the rail system within the Community (6), here-
‘Railway Interoperability
the
inafter
Directive’,
replaced Directives 96/48/EC
that
and 2001/16/EC.

referred to as

has

(3)

(4)

The entry into force of the 1999 Convention concerning
International Carriage by Rail (COTIF) on 1 July 2006
brought in new rules governing contracts for the use of
to the CUV (Uniform Rules
vehicles. According
concerning Contracts of Use of Vehicles in International
Rail Traffic) appendix thereto, wagon keepers are no
longer obliged to register their wagons with a railway
undertaking. The former
‘Regolamento Internazionale
(RIV) Agreement between railway undertakings
Veicoli’
has ceased to apply and was partially replaced by a new
private and voluntary agreement (General Contract of
Use for Wagons, GCU) between railway undertakings and
wagon keepers whereby the latter are in charge of the
maintenance of their wagons. In order to reflect these
changes and to facilitate the implementation of Direc-
tive 2004/49/EC as far as safety certification of railway
undertakings is concerned, the concept of the ‘keeper’
‘entity in charge of maintenance’
and the concept of
should be defined, as well as the specification of the rela-
tionship between these entities and railway undertakings.

The definition of
the keeper should be as close as
possible to the definition used in the 1999 COTIF
Convention. Many entities can be identified as a keeper
of a vehicle, for example, the owner, a company making
business out of a fleet of wagons, a company leasing
vehicles to a railway undertaking, a railway undertaking
or an infrastructure manager using vehicles for main-
taining its infrastructure. These entities have the control
over the vehicle with a view to its use as a means of
transport by the railway undertakings and the infrastruc-
ture managers. In order to avoid any doubt, the keeper
should be clearly identified in the National Vehicle
Register (NVR) provided for in Article 33 of the Railway
Interoperability Directive.

(6) OJ L …

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(5)

Before a vehicle is placed in service or used on the
network, an entity in charge of its maintenance should
be identified in the NVR. The keeper and the entity in
charge of maintenance can be the same person or body.
However, in exceptional cases, such as, for example, vehi-
cles placed in service for the first time in a third country,
vehicles towed with a view to their placing in service in
the network or carrying out special
another place of
it is not possible or appropriate to
transport services,
identify the entity in charge of maintenance.
In such
exceptional cases, the relevant national safety authority
should be allowed to accept vehicles on the network for
which it is competent without an entity in charge of
maintenance being assigned to them.

its

(6) Where this entity in charge of maintenance is a railway
undertaking or an infrastructure manager,
safety
management system includes the maintenance system
and neither of them needs further certification. If the
entity in charge of maintenance is not a railway under-
taking or an infrastructure manager, it may be certified
according to a system to be developed by the European
Railway Agency and adopted by the Commission. The
certificate delivered to that entity would guarantee that
the maintenance requirements of this Directive are met
for any vehicle of which it is in charge. This certificate
should be valid in the whole Community.

(7)

(8)

(9)

Maintenance requirements are being developed in the
context of the Railway Interoperability Directive, in par-
ticular as part of the ‘rolling stock’ technical specifications
for interoperability (TSIs). As a result of the entry into
force of this Directive there is a need to ensure coherence
between these TSIs and the certification requirements for
the entity in charge of maintenance to be adopted by the
Commission. The Commission will achieve this by modi-
the relevant TSIs using the
fying, where appropriate,
procedure envisaged by the Railway Interoperability
Directive.

Since the objective of
this Directive, namely further
developing and improving safety on the Community`s
railways, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member
States and can therefore, by reason of the scale of the
action, be better achieved at Community level, the Com-
munity may adopt measures in accordance with the prin-
ciple of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty.
In accordance with the principle of proportionality set
out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond
what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

The measures necessary for the implementation of Direc-
tive 2004/49/EC 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 (1).

(10)

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to
revise and adapt the Annexes to Directive 2004/49/EC,
to adopt and revise common safety methods and
common safety targets, and also to establish a mainte-
nance certification system. Since those measures are of
general scope and are designed to amend non-essential
elements of Directive 2004/49/EC,
alia, by
supplementing it with new non-essential elements, they
must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory
procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of
Decision 1999/468/EC.

inter

(11) A Member State which has no railway system and which
does not envisage having one in the near future, would
be under a disproportionate and pointless obligation if it
had to transpose and implement this Directive. Therefore,
such a Member State should be exempted, for as long as
it has no railway system, from the obligation to transpose
and implement this Directive.

(12)

the Interinstitutional
In accordance with point 34 of
Agreement on better law-making (2), Member States are
encouraged to draw up, for themselves and in the inter-
ests of the Community, their own tables illustrating, as
far as possible, the correlation between this Directive and
the transposition measures, and make them public.

(13) Directive 2004/49/EC should therefore be amended

accordingly,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

Amendments

Directive 2004/49/EC is hereby amended as follows:

1.

the following points shall be added to Article 3:

‘(s) “keeper” means the person or entity that, being the
owner of a vehicle or having the right to use it, exploits
the vehicle as a means of transport and is registered as
such in the National Vehicle Register (NVR) provided
for
the
in Article 33 of Directive 2008/…/EC of
European Parliament and of the Council of … on the
interoperability of
the rail system within the Com-
munity (*), hereinafter referred to as the “Railway Inter-
operability Directive”;

(t) “entity in charge of maintenance” means an entity in
charge of maintenance of a vehicle, and registered as
such in the NVR;

(1) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23. Decision as amended by Decision

2006/512/EC (OJ L 200, 22.7.2006, p. 11).

(2) OJ C 321, 31.12.2003, p. 1.

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(u) “vehicle” means a railway vehicle suitable to circulate
on its own wheels on railway lines, with or without
traction. A vehicle is composed of one or more struc-
such
tural and functional
subsystems;

subsystems or parts of

(*) OJ L …’;

2.

in Article 4(4) the term ‘wagon keeper’ shall be replaced by
‘keeper’;

3. Article 5(2) shall be replaced by the following:

Before 30 April 2009 Annex I shall be revised,

‘2.
in
particular to incorporate therein the common definitions of
the CSIs and the common methods for calculating accident
costs. This measure, designed to amend non-essential
elements of this Directive, shall be adopted in accordance
with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in
Article 27(2a).’;

4. Article 6 shall be amended as follows:

(a) paragraph 1 shall be replaced by the following:

An initial

series of CSMs

a
‘1.
minimum,
the methods described in paragraph 3(a)
shall be adopted by the Commission before 30 April
2008. They shall be published in the Official Journal of
the European Union.

covering,

as

A second series of CSMs covering the remaining
methods described in paragraph 3 shall be adopted by
the Commission before 30 April 2010. They shall be
published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

These measures, designed to amend non-essential
elements of this Directive by supplementing it, shall be
adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure
with scrutiny referred to in Article 27(2a).’;

(b) point

(c) of paragraph 3 shall be replaced by the

following:

‘(c) as far as they are not yet covered by TSIs, methods
to check that
the
railway system are operated and maintained in
accordance with the relevant essential
require-
ments.’;

the structural subsystems of

(a)

the first and second subparagraphs of paragraph 3 shall
be replaced by the following:

‘The first set of draft CSTs shall be based on an exami-
nation of existing targets and safety performance in the
Member States and shall ensure that the current safety
performance of the rail system is not reduced in any
Member State. It shall be adopted by the Commission
before 30 April 2009 and shall be published in the
Official
the European Union. This measure,
designed to amend non-essential elements of this Direc-
tive, inter alia, by supplementing it, shall be adopted in
accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny
referred to in Article 27(2a).

Journal of

The second set of draft CSTs shall be based on the
experience gained from the first set of CSTs and their
implementation. It shall reflect any priority areas where
safety needs to be further improved. It shall be adopted
by the Commission before 30 April 2011 and shall be
published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
to amend non-essential
This measure,
elements of this Directive, inter alia, by supplementing
it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory
procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 27(2a).’;

designed

(b) paragraph 5 shall be replaced by the following:

‘5.
The CSTs shall be revised at regular intervals,
taking into account the global development of railway
safety. This measure, designed to amend non-essential
elements of this Directive, inter alia, by supplementing
it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory
procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 27(2a).’;

6. Article 10 shall be amended as follows:

(a)

the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 shall be
replaced by the following:

the safety certificate is to provide
‘The purpose of
evidence that the railway undertaking has established its
safety management system and can meet requirements
laid down in TSIs and other relevant Community legis-
lation and in national safety rules in order to control
safely on the
risks and provide transport services
network.’;

(c) paragraph 4 shall be replaced by the following:

(b) point

(b) of paragraph 2 shall be replaced by the

following:

‘4.
The CSMs shall be revised at regular intervals,
taking into account the experience gained from their
application and the global development of
railway
safety and the obligations on Member States as laid
down in Article 4(1). This measure, designed to amend
non-essential elements of this Directive,
inter alia, by
supplementing it, shall be adopted in accordance with
the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in
Article 27(2a).’;

5. Article 7 shall be amended as follows:

‘(b) certification confirming acceptance of

the provi-
sions adopted by the railway undertaking to meet
specific requirements necessary for the safe supply
of
its services on the relevant network. These
requirements may concern the application of the
TSIs
including the
network operating rules, acceptance of staff certifi-
cates and authorisation to operate vehicles used by
railway undertakings. The certification shall be
based on documentation submitted by the railway
undertaking as described in Annex IV.’;

and national

safety rules,

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7. Article 14 shall be replaced by the following:

8. Article 16(2) shall be amended as follows:

‘Article 14

Maintenance of vehicles

1.
Before it is placed in service or used on the network,
each vehicle shall have an entity in charge of maintenance
assigned to it and this entity shall be registered in the NVR
in accordance with Article 33 of the Railway Interoper-
ability Directive.

2.
in
The relevant National Safety Authorities may,
exceptional cases and restricted to their respective networks,
decide on derogations from the obligation provided for in
paragraph 1.

3. Without prejudice to the responsibility of the railway
undertakings and infrastructure managers as provided for
in Article 4,
the entity in charge of maintenance shall
ensure that vehicles are in a safe state of running by
means of a system for maintenance.

(a) point (a) shall be replaced by the following:

‘(a) authorising the placing in service of the structural
subsystems constituting the rail system in accord-
ance with Article 15 of the Railway Interoperability
Directive and checking that they are operated and
maintained in accordance with the relevant essential
requirements;’;

(b) point (b) shall be deleted;

(c) point (g) shall be replaced by the following:

‘(g) supervising that vehicles are duly registered in the
NVR and that safety related information contained
therein, is accurate and kept up to date;’;

9.

the following point shall be added to Article 18:

‘(e) the derogations that have been decided in accordance

with Article 14(2).’;

10. Article 26 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 26

Adaptation of the Annexes

4. Where the entity in charge of maintenance is a
the
railway undertaking or an infrastructure manager
system referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article shall be
established through the safety management system set out
in Article 9.

The Annexes shall be adapted to scientific and technical
progress. This measure, designed to amend non-essential
elements of this Directive, shall be adopted in accordance
with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in
Article 27(2a).’;

5.
If the entity in charge of maintenance is not a railway
undertaking or an infrastructure manager it may be certi-
fied pursuant to paragraph 6.

6.
the
Based on a recommendation by the Agency,
Commission shall, by … (*), adopt a measure establishing
certification of the entity in charge of maintenance with
regard to its maintenance system. This measure, designed to
amend non-essential elements of this Directive, by supple-
menting it, shall be adopted in accordance with the regula-
tory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 27(2a).
The measure shall include the requirements for the certifica-
tion of the entity in charge of maintenance based on the
approval of its maintenance system, the format and validity
of the certificate and the body or bodies responsible for
issuing it, and the controls necessary for the functioning of
the certification system.

7.
The certificates granted in accordance with para-
graph 6 of this Article shall confirm compliance with the
requirements referred to in paragraph 3 of this Article and
shall be valid throughout the Community. If the entity in
charge of maintenance is not certified, a railway under-
taking or an infrastructure manager shall ensure, through
its safety management system set out in Article 9, that all
relevant maintenance procedures are adequately applied.’;

11. Article 27 shall be amended as follows:

(a)

the following paragraph shall be added:

‘2a. Where reference is made to this paragraph,
and Article 7 of Decision
Article 5a(1)
1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provi-
sions of Article 8 thereof.’;

to (4)

(b) paragraph 4 shall be deleted;

12. point 3 of Annex II shall be deleted.

Article 2

Implementation and transposition

1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations
and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this
Directive by … (**). They shall forthwith communicate to the
Commission the text of those provisions.

When Member States adopt these measures, they shall contain a
reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such
reference at the time of their official publication. The methods
of making such reference shall be laid down by the Member
States.

(*) One year after the entry into force of this Directive.

(**) 24 months after the entry into force of this Directive.

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The obligations for transposition and implementation of this
Directive shall not apply to the Republic of Cyprus and the
Republic of Malta for as long as no railway system is established
within their respective territories.

2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the
text of the main provisions of national law which they adopt in
the field covered by this Directive.

Article 3

Entry into force

This Directive shall enter into force on the day following that of
its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Article 4

Addressees

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at …

For the European Parliament

The President

…

For the Council

The President

…

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STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

On 13 December 2006, the Commission submitted three legislative proposals primarily aimed at facili-
tating the movement of railway vehicles across the European Union:

— a proposal for a Directive amending Directive 2004/49/EC on safety on the Community's railways (1)

(hereinafter referred to as the Railway Safety Directive);

— a proposal for a Directive on the interoperability of the Community rail system (2) (hereinafter

referred to as the Railway Interoperability Directive);

— a proposal

for a Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 establishing a European

Railway Agency (3) (hereinafter referred to as the Agency Regulation).

On 29 November 2007, the European Parliament voted its opinion at first reading.

On 3 March 2008, the Council will adopt its Common Position. In carrying out its work, the Council
took account of the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (4). The Committee of the Regions
decided not to adopt an opinion on the above mentioned proposals.

II. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

1. General

With a view to enabling railways to play its key role with regard to sustainable mobility in the
European Union, the Council aims at the gradual development of an integrated European railways
area. In this context, the Council considers that the three legislative proposals recasting the intero-
perability directives for conventional and high-speed rail and amending the Railway Safety Directive
and the Agency Regulation can bring important improvements to the technical part of the regula-
tory framework for European railways.

These proposals lower existing barriers to the free circulation of railway vehicles on the European
rail network thereby facilitating cross acceptance of authorisations of railway vehicles amongst
Member States.

Council and Parliament succeeded in reaching an agreement at first reading on the proposal for a
Railway Interoperability Directive so that Council can adopt the proposed act thus amended.
Council and Parliament could however not align their positions at first reading on the proposals
amending the Railway Safety Directive and the Agency Regulation. Consequently, Council adopted
Common Positions on both proposals, thereby taking due account of the amendments which
Parliament adopted at its first reading Opinions.

2. Key policy issues

The three main changes Council made to the Commission proposal are set out below. Furthermore,
Council provides for an exemption for Cyprus and Malta.

2.1. Integration of all provisions on authorisation procedures in one single act

Both the Railway Safety Directive and the Railway interoperability directives currently in force
contain provisions dealing with authorisation procedures for placing railway vehicles in service. The
latter deals with new or upgraded parts of the Community rail system and the former concerns
vehicles that are already in use. In accordance with Better Regulation, and with a view to simpli-
incorporates all provisions regarding authorisations for
fying Community legislation, Council

(1) OJ C 126, 7.6.2007, p. 7.
(2) OJ C 126, 7.6.2007, p. 7.
(3) OJ C 126, 7.6.2007, p. 7.
(4) OJ C 256, 27.10.2007, p. 39.

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placing vehicles in service in a single legal act. Thereto, the existing but amended Article 14, the
new Article 14a and the new Annex of the proposal amending the Railway Safety Directive are
transferred to the recasted Railway Interoperability Directive. Parliament agreed with this transfer in
the context of the first reading agreement on the Railway Interoperability Directive. Consequently,
Council can in principle accept the amendments 20, 26 and 27 in full. Furthermore, Council can
in principle follow amendment 18 considering that, as a result of the transfer, the legislator can
refrain from making any reference to authorisation procedures in the amended Railway Safety
Directive.

2.2. Clarification of roles and responsibilities with regard to maintenance

As a result of the entry into force on 1 July 2006 of the new 1999 Convention concerning Interna-
tional Carriage by rail (COTIF), keepers of vehicles are no longer obliged to register their wagons
with a railway undertaking. In response to this development, and with a view to enabling railway
undertakings to provide transport services safely on the network, Council specifies the new constel-
lation of roles and responsibilities with regard to maintenance. Thereto, the Council puts forward a
new definition of ‘keeper’ and introduces the concept of ‘entity in charge of maintenance’.

While following as close as possible the definition used in COTIF, Council establishes a clear
connection between the keeper and its vehicle through the obligation for keepers to register as such
in a National Vehicle Register. Council can accept amendment 8 in full as Council and Parliament
agree on the definition of ‘keeper’. Moreover, amendment 9, which was introduced with a view to
applying the correct terminology, can be accepted in principle.

In the Common Position, it is provided for that entities in charge of maintenance shall ensure that
vehicles are in a safe state of running by means of a system for maintenance. Thereto, each vehicle,
before it is placed in service or used on the network, needs to have such an entity in charge of
maintenance assigned to it. Moreover, each entity in charge of maintenance must be registered in a
National Vehicle Register. Only in exceptional cases, and restricted to its respective network, a
National Safety Authority may decide to derogate from the obligation to assign an entity in charge
of maintenance to a vehicle. Such derogations need to be published by the authority in its annual
report. Through this system, Council aims at enabling railway undertakings and infrastructure
managers to easily identify who is in charge of the maintenance of the vehicles they operate.

2.3. Maintenance certification

With a view to assuring both to the National Safety Authorities and to the participants in the trans-
port chain that the maintenance of wagons is effectively controlled, Council chooses to strengthen
the provision in the Commission proposal on maintenance certification. The Commission proposed
that, where appropriate, a maintenance certification system for keepers should be established.
Conversely, Council agrees on a provision obliging the Commission to adopt, at the latest one year
after the entry into force of the proposal amending the Railway Safety Directive, a measure estab-
lishing certification of entities in charge of maintenance with regard to their maintenance systems.
Both in the Commission proposal and in Council's Common Position, this certification system is
based on a Recommendation from the European Railway Agency. The Council ensures that the
certificate delivered will be valid throughout the Community, and that it will guarantee the certified
entity meeting the maintenance requirements of the Railway Safety Directive for any vehicle of
which it is in charge.

Furthermore, entities in charge of maintenance may participate in this certification system on a
voluntary basis. Finally, with a view to clarifying that no new requirements are introduced for
railway undertakings and infrastructure managers, the Council specifies that the safety management

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system, which railway undertakings and infrastructure managers already need to establish under the
current Railway Safety Directive, includes the maintenance system.

In amendment 21, Parliament proposes a system of maintenance of railway vehicles that differs in
two main ways from the system laid down by the Council. First of all, where Council — in line
with Commission Decision of 28 July 2006 adopting the Technical Specification on Interoperability
(TSI) on wagons and with Commission Decision of 9 November 2007 adopting a common specifi-
cation of the National Vehicle Register — introduces the concept of entity in charge of mainte-
nance, Parliament attributes direct responsibility for the maintenance of a vehicle to the keeper.
Secondly, Parliament requests a mandatory maintenance certification system, whereas Council — in
line with the global approach as outlined by the European Railway Agency — provides for a volun-
tary system.

Council cannot accept amendment 21 for three reasons. The first reason is that making the keeper
responsible for the maintenance of the vehicle does not seem to be coherent with the overall
responsibility of railway undertakings and infrastructure managers for a safe operation of transport
as arranged for in other key provisions of the Railway Safety Directive, in particular Article 4. As a
second reason, Council considers that mandatory participation in a maintenance system is not
always appropriate and could lead to unnecessary administrative costs, for instance in the case of
wagons coming from third countries or other types of vehicles such as locomotives and passenger
cars. As a third reason, Council fears that attributing to keepers a responsibility for maintenance,
which requires specific know-how, could burden to the development of their economic activities.

2.4. Exemption for Cyprus and Malta

Taking into account the fact that Cyprus and Malta do not have railway systems, the Council
provides in its Common Position for an exemption to transpose and implement the Directive
amending the Railway Safety Directive as long as no railway system is established on their respec-
tive territories.

III. AMENDMENTS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The response of Council to the amendments 8, 9, 18, 20, 21, 26 and 27 is set out above in relation to
the key issues.

In addition, Council can accept in full amendment 2 on the correlation tables. Moreover, amendment 16
and 17 concerning correction of a language version are acceptable in principle. However, Council
cannot accept for legal or technical reasons the following amendments:

— Amendment 3 because objectives of safety and health of workers fall outside the scope of the

Commission proposal;

— The mutually related amendments 4 to 7 because the proposed definition of ‘national safety rules’ is
not compatible with Annex II of the Railway Safety Directive where a description of national safety
rules is given, and because the term ‘essential requirements’
is used in a sense considered too
narrow;

— Amendment 14 because the Council holds the opinion that the discussion on developing Common
Safety Targets (CSTs) took place at the time of the adoption of the Railway Safety Directive and
should not be re-opened. Moreover, the Council notes that, on the basis of Article 6(4) of Agency
Regulation, Recommendations of the European Railway Agency, inter alia on CSTs, already require
detailed cost-benefit analyses;

— Amendment 19 as it is not compatible with the structure of the Common Position;

— Amendment 22 concerns the question who should be allowed to request a technical opinion from
the European Railway Agency. This should however not be contentious anymore as, in the context
of the Railway Interoperability Directive, Council and Parliament reached an agreement on the same
issue;

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— Amendments 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 23, 24 and 25 on comitology in which Parliament introduces
the urgency procedure for several measures. Since these measures are of general scope and designed
to amend or supplement non-essential elements of the Railway Safety Directive, Council does agree
with the Commission and with the Parliament that, for these measures, the Parliament should be
involved through the regulatory with scrutiny procedure. Nevertheless, providing for the possibility
to apply the urgency procedure seems disproportionate as all these measures are already linked to a
specific deadline or need to be revised at regular intervals.

IV. CONCLUSION

The three legislative proposals on interoperability, safety and the European Railway Agency, which aim
at facilitating the movement of railway vehicles across the European Union, make an important contri-
bution to the further integration of the European railways area. Council and Parliament already achieved
significant progress on these three proposals, in particular by reaching a first reading agreement on the
Railway Interoperability Directive. This lays a solid basis for both co-legislators to find compromise solu-
tions on the proposals amending the Railway Safety Directive and the Agency Regulation during their
second reading discussions.