MEPs want liberalisation of railway passenger services by 2008

Georg Jarzembowski (EPP-DE), Parliament's rapporteur, stresses the need for efficient passenger traffic to compete with car and air transport. He has already appealed to the European Council to abandon their refusal to open up the tracks to competition.

Harlem Désir (PES-FR)and other socialist MEPs called on MEPs not to accept the further liberalisation of rail. They claimed that such a liberalisation could have a negative impact on security, quality of services and jobs in this sector.

Theo Bouwman(Greens/EFA-NL), President of the Social Affairs Committee in the European Parliament,said: "We need a thorough debate on the liberalisation of passenger services in the context of the up-coming debate on services of public interest and again when the Commission presents its new package on rail passengers. And we have to learn from the lessons of liberalisation in the UK and the Netherlands, which demonstrated that it is wise to proceed cautiously with privatisation. Therefore we support the Council in its position against an accelerated liberalisation of the European freight services, which means that cabotage will be allowed only from 2008 on."

CLECAT(representing the European freight forwarding sector) stresses that liberalisation of international rail freight markets can only be fully efficient if accompanied by more competition on domestic markets in order to attract the necessary private funds.