Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-21-Speech-2-038"
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"en.20031021.2.2-038"2
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"Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we have been invited to decide at the second reading on the schedule for opening up freight rail services to competition. The common position of the Council is 1 January 2006 for opening up international freight services and 1 January 2008 for national freight services. No schedule for passenger rail transport has been established. The Council has adopted a prudent approach taking account of the need to move ahead stage by stage. On the other hand, our rapporteur advocates doing away with the schedule altogether. He proposes instead that all crossborder freight and passenger services be opened up as of 1 January 2006 and all services across the network as of 1 January 2008. We must question whether it is pertinent to lump everything together in this way.
There is a pressing need to address the underdevelopment of freight transport services affecting many countries. Freight transport tends to be characterised by poor service, prohibitive costs, archaic procedures and constant strikes. This all means that timetables are not kept to. In this respect, the prospect of the appropriately staged liberalisation of services could provide a salutary incentive for national reforms, provided that the highest safety standards are upheld and that the existing quality of passenger services is not compromised.
It is necessary, however, to distinguish clearly between freight and passenger services. In many Member States passenger rail services are instrumental in national and regional development. They also have public service responsibilities, which must not be sacrificed to hasty liberalisation. A trend is emerging in certain railway companies. They are passing their duty as public service providers onto local authorities. They are also neglecting the equipment and networks providing important links between regions in order to concentrate solely on the most lucrative lines. It is important to ensure that premature liberalisation does not make this situation worse instead of better. We must ensure that this decline is not accelerated instead of remedied. Premature liberalisation entails the risk of creating areas totally bereft of rail services and of aggravating regional inequalities. This is not what the citizens of the Member States want. It is not what the European Union wants either.
We prefer the wise approach adopted by the Council to the haste advocated by our rapporteur. We will therefore support the common position of the Council. This provides for access rights for passenger transport services to be addressed within the framework of the third rail package. Madam President, this work will be based on the conclusions drawn from a careful assessment of the first stage of the process. In this assessment, particular attention should be paid to safety, market share and rail freight volumes, the status of companies and employees’ working conditions."@en1
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