Strasbourg adopts equivocal first reading position on fourth railway package

The package will allineate authorizations and standards, thereby contributing to the competitiveness of the rail sector. However, it will allow States to give direct concessions, favouring current big companies

our correspondent from Strasbourg Alfonso Bianchi

A liberalization convincing nobody, too weak for liberals, too tough for left-wing parties. The NLT unifying thing? The Fourth Railway Package is not the one initially wanted by the Parliament. Too many compromises, too many mediations, and everyone got disappointed. “It would have been better for the Commission to present the package earlier. Instead, we had to vote it during an electoral period, with great pressure on MEPs to follow their countries’ line, hence there is no European approach,” said Saïd El Khadraoui, Rapporteur, during the press conference held in Strasbourg after the vote. “There have been great pressures from hisorical monopolies” thus the final text is incomplete and “we will probably have to discuss a Fifth Package during the next Parliamentary term,” echoed Izaskun Bilbao Barandica, the other Rapporteur. According to Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for mobility and transport, “This is not the strong signal that European rail needs and expects,” given that “today’s plenary vote is yet another demonstration of the tenacity of the vested national interests that proved more appealing to MEPs than the balanced and well-reasoned compromises reached in December by the Transport and Tourism Committee.”

First, mandatory tendering of public service contracts was not introduced, favouring current big operators, even if some criteria on efficiency and quality were establishedYet, EU rules would set a maximum duration for such contracts and require the authorities to justify awarding them directly on efficiency criteria such as punctuality of services, cost-efficiency, frequency of train operations, and customer satisfaction,. “Unfortunately, the majority chose to maintain direct assignment, notwithstanding current inefficiency and overpricing of tickets” said Ramon Tremosa i Balcells (Alde).“It is a good balance between open markets and public service,” replied El Khadraoui, “We have foreseen a safety mechanism for public service contracts: new operators willing to provide services that could harm the important role of public service contracts would be subject to a verification of its impact on the public service.” New operators “giving extra services, creating revenues and attracting new passengers” will be accepted.

Public service operators that are selected by the authorities should grant their staff working conditions that comply with binding national, regional or local social standards and/or rules for transfer of staff in the event of a change of operator. They would also have to comply with the relevant collective agreements and ensure decent employment and working conditions.

In order to favour transnational interoperability, MEPs approved some rules designed to harmonize safety certification for rail operators and cut the time and cost of vehicle authorization procedures. “This will end the uncountable national regulations, offering a single reference approach” said Michael Cramer (Greens), “we want to create a European Railway Agency (ERA), coordinating national agencies and ensuring alienated procedures. This will end the current situation, with 11,000 national regulations, increasing costs and administrative burdens” as well as the timing of authorisations for services.

Unions criticised the text, and manifested against it in front of the Parliament in Strasbourg, as well as the United Left. According to Sabine Wils (Gue/Ngl) “this legislative package will pave the way to other privatisations, unf favouring workers’ rights and passengers’ ingests in terms of costs, safety and accessibility.” Yet, Wils said she is happy of the rejection of the proposed amendment on “supplying high level of minimum services even in case of strike.”

With this vote, the European Parliament has adopted its first reading position on the six legislative proposals of the package. It is now up to the Council to adopt its own position. the examination of the market pillar was expected to start under the ongoing Greek presidency, which said it won’t have time: it will be up to the Italian presidency to examine it, then newly elected Parliament will have to approve it.