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 Regulation of the European Parliament of the Council on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area
Date: 2026-04-23
Institutions: Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission
Subjects: common transport policy, crisis management, management planning, rail transport, trans-European network, transport capacity, transport company, transport infrastructure, transport market, transport planning

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 23.4.2026  COM(2026) 171 final 2023/0271 (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 Regulation of the European Parliament of the Council on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway area (Text with EEA relevance)  
 
2023/0271 (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 Regulation of the European Parliament of 
the Council on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the single European railway 
area 

(Text with EEA relevance) 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document COM(2023) 443 final – 2023/0271 COD): 

12 July 2023. 

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

25 October 2023. 

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

12 March 2024. 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal: 

N/A. 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

21 April 2026. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

This  proposal  is  a  key  action  of  the  European  Green  Deal  and  the  Sustainable  and  Smart 
Mobility  Strategy.  Its  main  goal  is  to  lay  down  a  framework  allowing  rail  infrastructure 
capacity and traffic to be managed more efficiently, thereby improving the quality of services 
and  accommodating  more  traffic  on  the  railway  network.  Achieving  this  goal  is  crucial  for 
ensuring that the transport sector contributes to decarbonisation 

3. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

The  position  of  the Council  as  adopted  at  first  reading  fully  reflects  the  political  agreement 
reached  between  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  on  18  November  2025.  The 
Commission accepts the overall agreement. The main amendments to Commission’s original 
proposal are: 

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A stronger  role of national  administrations in laying down general  requirements 
for the use of rail infrastructure (e.g. Member States may require the infrastructure to 
develop  a  clock-face  timetable,  or  to  reserve  a  minimum  amount  of  infrastructure 
capacity  for  certain  market  segments).  Those  prerogatives  are  however  strictly 
defined, do not impinge on the operational responsibilities of infrastructure managers 
and must leave them a sufficient margin of independence.   

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• 

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• 

A wide derogation from the rules of the Regulation was introduced for military and 
defence purposes. 

Rules  on  the  calculation  and  capping  of  the  penalties  which  are  due  when  making 
changes to allocated capacity were introduced. However, the reciprocal nature of the 
penalty system is maintained, and the rules on calculation and capping do not deprive 
the penalty system of its incentive effect. 

In  relation  to  governance,  a  new  entity  called  “European  Railway  Platform”  was 
introduced  with  a  view  to  facilitate  the  consultation  of  the  users  of  the  railway 
network by rail infrastructure managers. In addition, the Commission will no longer 
have  sole  chairmanship  of  the  European  Network  of  Rail  Regulatory  Bodies 
(ENRRB) but will co-chair with a national regulator. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

the  Council's  position  at  first  reading.  Furthermore,  as  agreed  during 

The  Commission  accepts  the  results  of  the  inter-institutional  negotiations  and  can  therefore 
the 
accept 
interinstitutional  negotiations,  the  Commission  will  issue  a  statement  upon  adoption  of  the 
Regulation.  It  will indicate that the Commission will assess the synergies between the tasks 
and competences of the  EU Agency for Railways,  as established under its current  mandate, 
and the requirements for the implementation of this Regulation. This statement is reproduced 
in the annex. 

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ANNEX 

Statement to be made by the Commission upon Adoption of the Regulation: 

“The Commission has stated its intention to assess the synergies that exist between the tasks 
and  competences  of  the  European  Union  Agency  for  Railways  (ERA)  established  in  the 
framework  of  its  current  mandate  under  Regulation  (EU)  2016/796  of  the  European 
Parliament  and  of  the  Council  and  the  requirements  for  implementation  of  this  Regulation 
with a view to seek ERA’s support in activities related to the preparatory work for secondary 
legislation  and  to  performance  monitoring.  The  Commission  notes  in  this  respect  that  data 
collected  and  monitored  by  ERA  within  its  current  mandate,  as  well  as  ERA’s  tools  of 
analysis,  can  also  be  used  to  monitor  the  capacity  use,  to  assess  the  railway  sector 
performance,  and  to  support  the  preparation  of  secondary  legislation,  thereby  avoiding 
duplications of data collection, storage, and tools for analysis, in a spirit of simplification and 
better regulation.” 

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