Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-24-Speech-1-129"
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, on 19 and 20 June 2007, following long and tough negotiations, particularly on the question of passengers’ rights, the conciliation committee finally reached agreement. Clearly, the agreement reflected effort on the part of all the institutions, but the European Parliament did contribute significantly in moving this third Railway Package forward. So I should like to thank Mr Vidal-Quadras, who led your delegation, as well as the rapporteurs, Mr Jarzembowski, Mr Sterckx and Mr Savary, and the chairman and members of the Transport Committee, who closely followed these issues and managed to achieve real advances on the text of the Council’s common position, particularly in relation to passengers’ rights.
This solution concerning the field of application has many advantages: it accords better with the internal market than the initially envisaged parameters depending on a national/international dimension; it gives the Member States more flexibility because, in defining at national level what constitute urban, suburban and regional services, within the framework fixed by the regulation, it will be possible to take account objectively of the dimension and structure of the territory in question.
The compromise has also deferred application of certain sections of the regulation for a transition period of five years, which may be renewed twice. This solution lessens the immediate burden on the railway companies, while retaining the obligation to transpose the rights that the regulation establishes into national law. This means there can be no let-up in the railways companies’ efforts as they look to the future. I would remind you, too, that the regulation will include a minimum core of rights that will apply, without exemptions, from the moment that it comes into force. These rights concern availability of tickets, civil liability in the event of accident, passengers’ personal security in stations, and non-discrimination in respect of passengers with reduced mobility. Quite a lot, in other words! It is a good outcome and it will enable us in future to offer rail passengers a better service.
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, we have shown that together we can move things forward. Clearly this is just one stage. We will now have to attend to the proper application of the rules that Parliament and the Council have adopted. The Commission, in its role as guardian of the Treaties, will work untiringly to that effect.
Because I arrived slightly late, having come straight from Cyprus, I missed hearing the three rapporteurs, but I did catch Mr Savary’s point that interoperability is vital to the Europeanisation of the railways. It is the price to be paid for shifting a proportion of our freight traffic onto rail – and we recognise today just how advantageous that will be, particularly in terms of our priority of tackling global warming.
Of course, this package is not perfect, but it has the great merit of being a reality and I cannot adequately express my appreciation, Mr President, of all the MEPs who contributed to its adoption; for us too, it marks the beginning of a new stage, in which I personally intend to invest considerable commitment and vigilance.
I am pleased that the ‘package’ approach taken by Parliament and the Commission has been successful. It has enabled us to have these two texts adopted just two-and-a-half years after the Commission produced the proposals – even though the number of Member States practically doubled in the interval. I have to acknowledge, Mr President, that it was Parliament’s tenacity which has resulted in the parallel adoption of the amended Regulation on public passenger transport services by rail and by road. It was by no means obvious two years ago that we would get this far. I extend my thanks to the House.
I should like now to outline briefly what has been achieved on each of the three texts. Let me begin with the opening up of the market in international rail passenger traffic. Two issues dominated discussions at the conciliation stage, namely the report that the Commission is to prepare on implementing the opening up of the international passenger services market and the levying of a charge towards the financing of public services. On the first point, Parliament was keen for the Commission’s report to include the opening up of the domestic services market and to be accompanied by an appropriate legislative proposal. The conciliation committee came up with a compromise whereby the Commission’s report will include an analysis of the prospects for opening domestic markets to competition. This will take account of experience in applying the rules on public services, and of the differences between Member States. If necessary, Mr Jarzembowski, the Commission report will also propose complementary measures to facilitate the gradual opening up of the market.
I am aware that, from your point of view, the compromise ought to have been more ambitious, but it has two advantages. It allows us to implement the new legislative framework, including the provisions for public services. It also sets a clear time scale for detailed analysis of the impact of this new legislative framework in all the Member States. So we will have an opportunity to consider the relevance of complementary proposals by the Commission.
The second focus of negotiation was the levying of a charge towards the financing of public services. A number of Member States hoped that all rail services within their territory, whether national or international and irrespective of their providers, would contribute collectively to the financing of public passenger transport services, via the levying of a charge. When the Council adopted its common position, the Commission accepted this as a possibility insofar as it was compatible with Community law. The compromise reached in the conciliation committee took on board several elements from Parliament’s second reading. I am grateful to the parliamentary delegation for giving it their support and I can assure you that I am committed to completing this legislation to the best of my ability.
That brings me, Mr Savary, to the certification of train staff. Apart from the more or less technical questions that were easily resolved prior to the final meeting, two issues still had to be addressed: partial reimbursement of training costs if a driver left a company early; and the directive’s field of application. The solution reached on the partial reimbursement of training costs was to ask the Member States to address the problem through national measures because, at the end of the day, harmonisation of their solutions was not essential.
With regard to the field of application, I think we have found the best solution. The European Railway Agency will commission a more detailed study of the profile and tasks of those members of staff on trains who contribute to their security. We will then be in a position to target our proposals more effectively for those staff, but you were quite right to highlight how extremely important this question of train crew certification is.
I will move on now, Mr Sterckx, to rail passengers’ rights and obligations. The final phase of the negotiations focused on the field of application of the regulation on rail passengers’ rights. From the outset, Parliament was keen to see these rights introduced for all railway services, including national services. However, a large number of Member States felt that this would pose major difficulties, particularly when it came to applying the regulation to local services, the characteristics of which are quite different from those of international or long-distance services.
In the end, the solution contained two key elements: a new distinction between types of service, and lengthy transition periods. The key parameters for application of the rules are now about long or short distance, with short-distance services including urban, suburban and regional rail links. So the regulation no longer refers to ‘national’ and ‘international’ services. This new arrangement, to which you made a substantial and skilful contribution, Mr Sterckx, enabled us to reach agreement on what had been the main sticking point."@en1
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