CELEX: 51989PC0564(03)
Language: en
Date: 1990-01-25
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHING OF A NETWORK OF HIGH SPEED TRAINS

14. 2. 90                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 34/13
     execution of a contract, the matter is to be referred to          — an overall evaluation of the contracts that have
     an arbitration panel designated by both parties.                       expired.
     During the period of examination by the panel the
     service shall be maintained. In reaching its findings             The Member States shall provide, at the
     the panel shall notably take into account:                        Commission's request, any further information on the
                                                                       conditions, operations and results of public service
     — the general public interest,                                    contracts.';
     — the special characteristics of the service,
                                                                   5. Article 19 is replaced by the following:
     — that the proper costs of the service have to be met.
                                                                        'Article 19
     The conclusions of the panel, to be reached within
     three months, shall be binding on both parties.                   1.     This Regulation shall apply to railway under-
                                                                       takings falling within the scope of the Council
     6.    The undertaking shall be entitled to compen-                Directive on the development of the Community
     sation in accordance with the procedures laid down in             railways (1).
     section IV for the period prior to the conclusion of
     the contract.                                                     2.     As regards other transport undertakings this
                                                                       Regulation shall not apply to undertakings mainly
     7.    By 31 May each year the Member States are to                providing transport services of a local or regional
    provide the Commission with information regarding                  character.'
    the public service contracts in the previous year, in
    particular:                                                                               Article 2
    — a synopsis of the contents of new contracts and              This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 January 1992.
         amendments,
    — the findings of the panels referred to in para-              (l) See the proposal for a Council Directive on page 8 of this
         graph 5,                                                      Official Journal.
               Proposal for a Council Decision concerning the establishing of a network of high speed trains
                                                      COM(89) 564 final
                                     (Submitted by the Commission on 1 December 1989)
                                                         (90/C 34/08)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                          Whereas the Commission submitted to the Council in
                                                                   1986 a report entitled 'Towards a European high speed
                                                                  rail network (')'; whereas the European Parliament has
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             supported Community action in this sector (2); whereas
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 75                 the community of European railways presented at the
thereof,                                                          beginning of 1989 a 'proposal for a European high speed
                                                                  network';
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                  Whereas the current saturation of airspace and of
                                                                  numerous road axes is worrying and any increase in air
Having regard        to  the   opinion   of  the   European       and road capacity would require heavy investment;
Parliament,
                                                                  Whereas the Community must give priority to the devel-
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                  opment of technologies that are environmentally
Social Committee,                                                 friendly;
Whereas the functioning of the internal market means              Whereas the rail infrastructure meets this requirement
that the efficiency of the transport infrastructure between       and would benefit from the development of high speed
the regions of the Community must be reinforced and               techniques;
increased, in particular by means of a high speed train
network to carry persons and, where appropriate,                  O COM(86) 341 final.
freight;                                                          O Starita report PE 109.323.
 ---pagebreak---    No C 34/14                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                  14. 2. 90
  Whereas the measures taken within each Member State                infrastructure and equipment for the different parts of
  must be incorporated into a coordinated Community                 the network shall be laid down so as to guarantee the
  programme, where a level of compatibility is ensured to           optimal movement of rolling stock. The Council shall
  guarantee the optimum movement of rolling stock;                  approve, on the basis of the procedure set out in Article
  whereas the conditions are to be created to allow the             75 of the EEC Treaty, any directives necessary for the
  Community to contribute to the financing of the                   technical harmonization of the network.
  network as laid down in Council regulations relating to
  support for transport infrastructure;                                                      Article 5
  Whereas the definition of this programme and the                   1.    The Member States shall work together within the
  harmonization of technical standards is therefore urgent;         committee established by Article 3, to undertake the
                                                                    actions set out in Article 4.
  Whereas the coordination necessary for the programme
  and the other actions proposed requires close colla-              2.     In good time before their final adoption the
  boration between the Member States and that such coor-            Member States shall communicate to the Commission
  dination should be undertaken in the framework of a               their high speed train and infrastructure projects,
  committee to be set up by the Commission,                         including their principle characteristics and the
                                                                    Commission shall inform the other Member States
  HAS ADOPTED THE FOLLOWING DECISION:                              thereof.
                                                                   3.      If within one month after the communication
                           Article 1
                                                                   referred to in paragraph 2 a Member State so requests,
 The Community's high speed rail links shall be                    or at the initiative of the Commission, the information
  developed within a European network that will                    will be the subject of joint consideration by the
  guarantee to its users a high quality service. On the            committee referred to in Article 3. Requests are to set
  sections where this is possible, the network will also be        out the grounds on which they are based and should
 open to high speed goods transport.                               state, notably, any possible restrictions to the operations
                                                                   or to the coherence of the network.
                          Article 2
                                                                   4.     The Member State responsible for a project which
  1.    The European high speed rail network, which is to          is to be examined shall not finally adopt it or start work
 be closely linked to existing rail links, will include high      within six months of the date of the communication
 speed lines together with the lines required for                  referred to in paragraph 2, in order to permit an
 connections and extensions.                                       agreement within the committee to remove all possible
                                                                  obstacles to the operation and coherence of the network
 2.     High speed lines consist of those which permit            established by Article 1.
 speeds of more than 200 kilometres hour on new lines
 and of more than 160 kilometres per hour on existing             5.      The period referred to in paragraph 4 shall be 12
 lines that have been improved.                                   months if the Commission, in the three months which
                                                                  follow the date of the communication referred to in
                          Article 3                               paragraph 2, states that it has the intention to propose a
                                                                  directive on the matter as provided for pursuant to
 1.    The Commision shall establish a committee to               Article 4 (2).
 undertake the work necessary for the development of the
 network referred to in Article 2. It shall consist of two                                  Article 6
 representatives of each Member State and other qualified
persons nominated by the Commission. The committee                1.      The Member States shall take any measures
shall be chaired by the Commission which shall provide            necessary to ensure that the consultation procedure
the secretariat.                                                  functions adequately and, in particular, to protect where
                                                                  necessary, the confidential nature of information given
2.     If necessary the committee may invite the represen-        to them in this context.
tatives of non-member countries involved in the devel-
opment of the network.                                            2.      The consultation procedure set up pursuant to this
                                                                  Decision shall not affect the competence of the
                          Article 4                              committees that already exist and, in particular, of the
                                                                 consultative and technical committees such as the Infra-
1.     Not later than 31 December 1990 the Council shall         structure Committee set up by Council Decision
lay down, in accordance with the procedure set out               78/174/EEC 0).
pursuant to Article 75 of the EEC Treaty, on the one
hand, the form of the future high speed rail network,                                       Article 7
and on the other hand, the timetable for the next 15
years for the axes to be given priority for completion.          This Decision is addressed to the Member States.
2.     During the process of development of this
Community plan, a sufficient level of compatibility of           (*) OJ No L 54, 25. 2. 1978, p. 16.