COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA)
Date: 2025-11-07
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: European Union Agency for Railways, operation of the Institutions, productivity, project evaluation, rail safety, rail transport, technical specification, telematics, trans-European network

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 7.11.2025  SWD(2025) 362 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE EVALUATION  of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) {SWD(2025) 361 final}  
 
 
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

With the entry into force of the technical pillar of the 4th Railway Package, the responsibilities 
of the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) have been substantially extended. ERA 
became  an  EU  body  responsible  to  issue  decisions  with  effect  in  the  entire  European  rail 
network, authorising rail vehicles for operation, certifying the safety management systems of 
railway  undertakings,  and  approving  trackside  projects  for  ERTMS  (European  Rail  Traffic 
Management System). Further, the 4th Railway Package reinforced ERA’s role in monitoring 
national safety authorities, when overseeing the countries rail sector, and enhanced its powers 
when  cooperating  with  Member  States  and  the  Commission  to  remove  redundant  national 
rules.  

The  scope  of  this  evaluation  is  established  by  Article  82(1)  and  (2)  of  the  Regulation  (EU) 
2016/796  (ERA  Regulation).  Pursuant  to  Article  82(1),  the  Commission  must  evaluate  the 
impact, effectiveness and efficiency of the Agency and its working practices and address any 
identified  need  to  modify  ERA’s  mandate.  Furthermore,  Article  82(2)  requires  the 
Commission  to  assess  the  functioning  of  (1)  the  dual  system  for  vehicle  authorisation  and 
single safety certification, (2) the one-stop shop (OSS), a digital application managed by the 
Agency  to  facilitate  the  rail  sector’s  and  the  rail  supply  industry’s  applications  to  ERA  or 
national safety authorities (NSAs), and (3) the harmonised implementation of ERTMS in the 
Union.  While  this  evaluation  formally  constitutes  the  first  evaluation  of  the  Agency,  it  also 
fulfils  the  obligation  set  out  under  Article  82(4)  to  assess  the  results  achieved  by  ERA  in 
relation to its mandate, objectives, and tasks. 

Main findings 

The  evaluation  concludes  that  ERA  is  relevant  for  the  current  and  future  needs  of  the 
European  railway  sector  to  improve  safety  and  achieve  interoperability  and  a  harmonised 
single rail market. There are, however, concerns about the Agency’s capacity to deliver on its 
authorisation tasks, such as managing an increased demand for vehicle authorisation, without 
negative repercussions on its policy tasks, such as developing further common EU technical 
and operating requirements  or common safety  methods supporting  the digitalisation and the 
modernisations  of  the  railways  of  the  future  while  improving  safety,  as  well  as  removing 
national rules and monitoring NSAs. 

As regards effectiveness, ERA had a positive contribution in all areas where it was expected 
to play a role under the 4th Railway Package, and it has also had a positive role towards the 
development of the Single European Rail Area (SERA), even though the level of contribution 
has not been in all areas at the level expected. Moreover, the new authorisation system has not 
yet  reduced  the  administrative burden  for  all  applicants equally and  nor  has it  delivered  the 
broader cost savings expected at the time of the adoption of the 4th Railway Package. Some 
processes  established  under  the  4th  Railway  package  created  complex  dependencies,  not 
contributing to the objectives of effectiveness or lowering costs.  

The  efficiency  analysis  showed  that  the  partial  and  uneven  achievement  of  ERA  objectives 
has  been  delivered  with  an  insufficient  level  of  resources.  The  human  resources  made 

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available to the Agency for the implementation of the 4th Railway Package were significantly 
lower than expected in the 2013 Impact Assessment. 

The key problems/needs identified in the 2013 Impact Assessment and at the time of adoption 
of the 4th Railway Package (especially  the  lengthy and costly authorisation  and certification 
procedures, a lack of modernisation and innovation in the rail sector and the need to  ensure 
safe  and  interoperable  railway  operations)  are  all  still  valid  today  although  progress  has 
definitively been made.  

The  ERA  mandate  appears  to  be  largely  coherent  with  the  broader  legislation  and  specific 
initiatives aiming at creating SERA. In particular, the ERA objective of ensuring high levels 
of interoperability across the EU rail infrastructure and equipment is fully  coherent with the 
liberalisation process and relevant infrastructure development initiatives, being a key enabler 
of these policies. However, delivering more technical harmonisation, as well as supporting the 
further digitalisation and modernisation of the entire industry, is difficult to achieve under the 
current mandate and with the current resources. As far as coherence with broader EU policy 
objectives is concerned, through its impact on SERA, ERA indirectly helps to accelerate the 
shift  towards  sustainable  and  smart  mobility  in  line  with  the  EU’s  objective  of  reducing 
greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90% by 2050 relative to 1990. 

Finally,  the  evaluation  concluded  that  action  at  EU  level  has  brought  specific  benefits  in 
comparison  to  action  only  at  national  level,  leading  to  greater  effectiveness  and  efficiency. 
National action would most likely be able to address certain aspects of safety in the respective 
national  networks  but  cannot  deliver  increased  interoperability  and  harmonised  operations 
across the EU network. 

Conclusions 

The  findings  of  this  evaluation  show  that  optimising  processes  and  streamlining  procedures 
for  vehicle  authorisation  and  safety  certification  could  increase  the  added  value  of  and  the 
benefits from ERA action. Moreover, a more expedite, effective delivery of ERA’s key policy 
tasks and responsibilities, with particular focus on the removal of obsolete national rules and 
of monitoring NSAs and compliance assessment bodies, would have ensured that ERA meets 
more widely the expectations of its role in the dual system. This would have helped a faster 
completion of a safe and interoperable as well as digital and modern SERA.  

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