COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 on rail transport statistics, as regards the collection of data on goods, passengers and accidents
Date: 2016-08-10
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, carriage of goods, carriage of passengers, data collection, exchange of information, rail transport, transport accident, transport statistics

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 10.8.2016  COM(2016) 506 final 2013/0297 (COD)   COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 on rail transport statistics, as regards the collection of data on goods, passengers and accidents (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
2013/0297 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Proposal for a Regulation of the European 
Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 on rail transport 
statistics, as regards the collection of data on goods, passengers and accidents 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 

30 August 2013  

COM(2013) 611– 2013/297(COD) 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

NA 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

11 March 2014  

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

NA  

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

18 July 2016 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

2. 
The aim of the Commission’s proposal is to modify Regulation (EC) No 91/20031 in order to 
update,  simplify  and  optimise  the  existing  legal  framework  for  European  statistics  on  rail 
transport and to align it with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), as 
far as delegated and implementing powers is concerned.  

The  proposed  Regulation  would  empower  the  Commission  to  adopt  delegated  acts  for  the 
purpose of adapting the definitions and thresholds for reporting,  amending the content of the 
Annexes, and  specifying the information to be supplied. 

It  would  also  confer  implementing  powers  on  the  Commission  with  a  view  to  ensuring 
uniform  conditions  as  regards  the  specification  of  information  to  be  supplied  for  producing 
the reports on the quality and comparability of the results, in accordance with the examination 
procedure laid down in Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/20112.  

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Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on 
rail transport statistics (OJ L 14, 21.1.2003, p. 1). 
Regulation  (EU)  No  182/2011  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  16  February  2011 
laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of 
the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p.13). 

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3. 

3.1 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

General comments 

The  position  of  the  Council  reflects  on  the  one  hand  the  agreement  reached  between  the 
Council, the European Parliament Transport and Tourism  Committee  and the Commission in 
the tripartite discussions of  24 May 2016 and, on the other hand, the new Inter-Institutional 
Agreement  on Better law-making of  13 April 20163.  

The main issue blocking the file was reaching an understanding with the European Parliament 
on the formalisation of the sharing of data between Eurostat, the  European Railway Agency 
(ERA)4  and  the  Directorate-General  for  Mobility  and  Transport  (DG  MOVE)  through 
bilateral Memoranda of Understanding (MoU).  

A  consensus  was  eventually  reached  with  the  signature  of  two  MoU,  one  between  Eurostat 
and DG MOVE and one between Eurostat and ERA. These gave the European Parliament the 
guarantee that the data it requested will be processed and made available.  

The text does not contain any explicit reference to MoUs, but a recital refers to “appropriate 
cooperation agreements on statistical activities”. 

The Council adopted its position at first reading on 18 July 2016.  

The Council’s position is acceptable for the Commission. 

3.2 

Comments on the amendments adopted by the European Parliament 

3.2.1.  European  Parliament  amendments  included  in  full,  in  part  or  in  principle  in  the 

Councils position at first reading 

On  11  March  2014,  the  European  Parliament  adopted  a  legislative  resolution  proposing  23 
amendments.  The  Commission  rejected  the  majority  of  them,  including  the  requests  for 
additional  variables.  In  particular  the  European  Parliament  was  of  the  opinion  that  data 
collection should be extended further to include rail infrastructure data, and that there should 
be more measurement variables for  statistics on passenger transport , in particular with regard 
to  cross-border  connections  that  it  considered  should  be  at  the  heart  of  the  EU’s  transport 
policy.  

3.2.2.  European  Parliament  amendments  not  included  in  the  Council  position  at  first 

reading 

The main amendments relating to the explicit addition of new variables were not included in 
the Council position.  

3.3 

Provisions modified by the Council and the Commission's position 

The  new  recital  (3a)  addresses  the  issue  of  further  data  collection  with  a  view  to  avoiding 
duplication  of  work  and  optimizing  the  use  of  existing  information.  It  also  specifies  that 
“appropriate cooperation agreements on statistical activities should be established between the 
Commission’s services and relevant entities, including at international level”. 

3 
OJ L 123, 12.5.2016, p.1. 
4 
Regulation  (EC)  No  881/2004  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  29  April  2004 
establishing a European railway agency (OJ L 164, 30.4.2004, p. 1). On 16 June 2016, following the entry into 
force  of  Regulation  (EU)  2016/796  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  of  11  May  2016  on  the 
European Union Agency for Railways and repealing Regulation (EC) No 881/2004(OJ L 138, 26.5.2016, p. 1), 
the European Union Agency for Railways replaces and succeeds the European Railway Agency (ERA).  

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Article 3(2) refers to the sole power conferred on the Commission to adopt delegated acts in 
order to adapt   existing technical definitions and introduce new technical definitions. It also 
specifies that, when exercising this power the Commission shall ensure that the delegated acts 
do not impose a significant additional burden on the Member States or on the respondents. In 
addition,  the  Commission  shall  duly  justify  the  measures  provided  for  in  the  delegated  acts 
using,  where  appropriate,  analysis  of  their  cost-effectiveness,  including  assessments  of  the 
burden  on  respondents  and  of  the  production  costs,  as  referred  to  in  Article  14(3)  (c)  of 
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009. 

Although the Commission regrets the limited nature of the empowerment given relative to the 
original  proposal,  it  can  however  consider  the  current  provision  acceptable  in  the  spirit  of 
reaching an agreement. 

Two further changes have been introduced:  

A new paragraph has been added to Article 7 on implementing measures to be adopted laying 
down the arrangements for the dissemination of results.  

The  new  Article  9  on  reporting  provides  for  the  Commission  to  report  to  the  European 
Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 by 31 
December 2020, and every four years thereafter instead of only reporting once as specified in 
the current Regulation. 

The standard recital and Article 10 on the exercise of the delegation of power are in line with the 
new Inter-Institutional Agreement on Better Law-Making. 

The Commission supports the above. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The  Commission  supports  the  compromise  reached  as  it  is  very  close  to  the  Commission’s 
original proposal. Furthermore, it creates no additional burden for data providers and is thus 
in line with the aim of simplifying the existing legal framework for European statistics on rail 
transport.  With  regard  to  the  alignment  of  Regulation  (EC)  No  91/2003  with  the  TFEU, 
despite  some  limitations,  the  compromise  provides  a  good  balance  between  delegated  and 
implementing  acts.  The  text  is  an  example  of  the  successful  application  of  the  new  Inter-
Institutional Agreement on Better Law-Making. 

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