EU agrees to liberalise rail by 2010

Parliament Rapporteur Dirk Sterckx (ALDE, BE) said: "This agreement is the outcome of extremely arduous negotiations. The fact that it was so difficult to persuade all member states to grant basic rights to rail passengers shows how poorly railway authorities treat their customers nowadays. By reaching this agreement we have done all rail passengers in the Union a service. In its original proposal the European Commission wanted to grant rights only to international passengers. Now all passengers will enjoy a range of basic rights. We had to make concessions, notably on transition periods. That is a pity but we had to get the new member states on board." 

EP Rapporteur Gilles Savary (PES, FR), welcomed the adoption of the directive on driver certification which he says will "strengthen, through the harmonisation of professional standards, the human dimension of railway security". However, he criticised the Council for having reduced the application of passenger rights to only a number of railway operators and for allowing member states to delay the conferral of these rights until as late as 2024. 

Johannes Ludewig, executive director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), said: "The compromise creates legal conditions for further integration of the European railway area, while at the same time taking into account that railways e.g. in Romania or Bulgaria operate under completely different conditions than companies in the UK or in Germany." 

The driver certification scheme "will significantly facilitate cross-border services", stated the CER, adding that the fact that the certification of other staff will be examined separately will ensure that "no superfluous measures are put in place". 

Similarly, it welcomed the separate treatment of national markets as a sign that "the EU institutions have taken into account specific situation of railway companies in Central and Eastern Europe, who are not yet prepared for competition for national services". 

It added: "On passengers' rights, the final compromise manages to reconcile the objective of formalised rights for passengers across the EU and the reality of extremely heterogeneous conditions of railway companies in various member states." 

The European Rail Infrastructure Managers (EIM) said: "The opening of the international freight market from the 1st of January 2007 coupled with the opening of the international passenger market is the key to increasing rail market share, reducing road congestion and hence has a positive impact on climate change." 

It said that the recognition of driving licences for train drivers across Europe "is a very positive step in the direction of allowing for free movement of train drivers and enhancing market opening. This can only assist in furthering market conditions and thereby future growth in international freight services." 

The EIM welcomed the exclusion suburban and regional traffic from the compensation package, saying this would have uselessly duplicated existing legislation already in place in member states. 

EIM Secretary-General Michael Robson said: "Sensible compromises have been reached, allowing the rail sector to continue to focus on gaining market share and benefiting the environment."