Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-07-02-Speech-1-036-000"
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"en.20120702.17.1-036-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to thank the shadow rapporteurs who worked with me to draft this important recommendation, the secretariat of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the secretariat of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament. After almost two years of lengthy and difficult negotiations with the shadow rapporteurs, the Council and the Commission, Parliament has managed to make considerable progress, in particular, by guaranteeing greater competition between rail operators, oversight by a strong, independent national regulatory body that ensures fair competition, the requirement, for the first time, to handle complaints within a set time ranging from six to a maximum of 16 weeks, the creation of a European network of national regulatory bodies and a rendezvous clause for the establishment of a European regulatory body.
Despite my firm belief that there needs to be separation between infrastructure managers and railway undertakings, we have reached a good compromise on separation that provides for transparency of financial flows between infrastructure managers and railway undertakings in integrated companies, as well as a rendezvous clause for the presentation of a legislative proposal on separation and on the opening of the domestic passenger market by the end of 2012.
I would like to remind Members that tomorrow, during the vote, amendments could be tabled. Should any of these amendments that are not part of this document receive majority support and be accepted by Parliament, the document would end up in conciliation. This would delay further still the opening of the debate on the fourth railway package. I therefore appeal to my fellow Members to understand the importance of adopting the railway recast tomorrow, so that we may then continue to work on the fourth railway package.
Moreover, the new rules – which should also lay a solid foundation for the financing of infrastructure thanks to contracts of a minimum of five years – and the agreement that we secured to strengthen the current rules and to create a single European railway area should offer all railway undertakings fair access to a wider range of services, such as maintenance and station services, including ticket sales, in addition to providing equal access to the rail network.
In particular, with regard to the regulatory body, a key element of the railway recast, the new rules lay down more stringent requirements for the appointment of its staff and in order to guarantee its full independence: cooling-on and cooling-off periods and a declaration of interest that the regulatory body’s members must submit. The recast also provides for the regulatory body to make recommendations to licensing and safety authorities to prevent, for example, safety rules being used to limit access to the market.
The recast will extend the regulatory bodies’ powers to ancillary rail services and to overseeing the separation of accounts. It will be made clear that regulatory bodies must review both the draft and final versions of network statements, which are an essential instrument to ensure that all the operators are aware of the market access conditions. Furthermore, in addition to acting in a limited timeframe in the event of a complaint, regulatory bodies will be able to intervene with regard to the introduction of mark-ups on the direct costs of infrastructure managers, control the criteria for the introduction of booking charges and regularly consult railway users.
Thanks to Parliament’s involvement, we have also managed to obtain a network of regulatory bodies: the content of the information will be exchanged in a clear manner and will be guaranteed by the Commission, which will be required to evaluate how efficiently the regulatory bodies are cooperating with the new network and to propose supplementary measures to ensure a more integrated oversight of the European rail market, with the hope that in the future, a European regulatory body can be established.
With regard to financing infrastructure, the multiannual contractual agreement no longer has a minimum duration of three years but five, and there is a provision requiring Member States to make good the deficit in the infrastructure manager’s accounts every five years at the most. A requirement has also been included …
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In order to have a single rail market, we need to provide non-discriminatory access to the market. Therefore, even if the separation requirements for service facilities have not been imposed on all kinds of infrastructure, the opening up of the services market is far-reaching, with an extensive list of essential services and non-discriminatory access to infrastructure and services. A ‘use it or lease it’ clause has also been included for services that have not been used for at least two years instead of three.
With regard to charges, in particular, noise charges, we have reached a compromise that is optional for Member States – although it will be mandatory to comply with the applicable EU rules – that envisages a bonus system to facilitate the retrofitting of trains. As for the European Train Control System (ETCS), a compulsory system is planned for all Member States that must be implemented on European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) lines: the introduction of a bonus-malus system for trains equipped with ETCS systems in accordance with common criteria set out by the Commission. The differentiation of charges will be completely revenue neutral for the infrastructure manager."@en1
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