EC Enforces Second Railway Package
October 16, 2006 // Published as a news service by IHS
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The European Commission (EC) began infringement proceedings against 13 European Union (EU) countries that failed to notify the EC of the transposition into domestic legislation of two key directives of the second railway package. These two directives aim at ensuring high levels of safety and interoperability for rail business across Europe. The EC is determined to ensure a level playing field for rail across the single market.
The second railway package[1] had to be transposed into national legislation before April 20, 2006. The 13 countries failing to notify the EC of their transposition of the two directives (2004/49 and 2004/50) are Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic[2]. If any of these member states fails to respond to the EC's reasoned opinion (by notifying its transposition measures) within a two-month deadline, the EC may decide to take the case before the European Court of Justice.
Directive 2004/49/EC on railway safety aims at strengthening rail safety by ensuring full transparency in relation to safety procedures in force. It lays down a procedure for granting the safety certificates every railway company must obtain before it can run trains on the European network. The objective is to bring the national safety systems to the highest common European standards, which would be set by the EC after preparatory work carried out by the European Railway Agency at the technical level. It also requires member states to set up an independent safety authority and an accident investigation body for rail transport.
Directive 2004/50/EC updates legislation already in force on the technical interoperability, which is needed in order to operate cross-border services and cut rolling stock costs on the high-speed network. The directive also allows for a change in working methods to facilitate the elaboration of technical specifications for interoperability. Geographically, interoperability will be extended to the entire EU open rail network.
Legislation implementing the package will be subject to further separate examination as to whether it conforms to European legislation and fully transposes it.
More information on the current developments in rail transport in the EU can be found on the EC's web site on Rail Transport and Interoperability.
[1] The second railway package consists of Directive 2004/49/EC (Railway Safety), Directive 2004/50/EC (Interoperability), Directive 2004/51/EC (Market Opening) and Regulation (EC) 881/2004 establishing a European Railway Agency. Directive 2004/51/EC foresees full market opening for international rail transport as of January 1, 2006 and had to be implemented by December 31, 2005. A comprehensive view of the notifications by the member states can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/transport/rail/legislation/mne_table_en.htm.
[2] Estonia and Spain only failed to notify 2004/49/EC, whereas France failed to notify 2004/50/EC.
Source: European Commission.