Rail Freight Lines - Lord Berkeley
Issue: Summer 2009
The House of Lords' European Committee produced a hard-hitting report on 2nd June giving strong support for full liberalization of the European rail freight market, whilst being critical at the slow progress of implementing legislation started in 1994 and, in theory at least, completed in 2001 as the First Railway Package.
Full separation of infrastructure management from train operators, effective independent regulation with requirements for cross-border co-operation, mandatory rules and multi-annual contracts for infrastructure managers, and full open access to sidings and facilities with a regulatory appeal mechanism are among the report's recommendations.
The report urges the European Commission to complete its work so that ‘an open and competitive rail market can be achieved and international rail freight can be encouraged further’.
Specifically, the report states that the European Commission must:
1. Move forward urgently on the infractions proceedings against those member states who are still not complying with the First Railway Package, to which they signed up over eight years ago.
2. Publish their proposed recast of the First Railway Package to put right those issues that are seen to be ineffective and incomplete.
The UK Railways Minister, Lord Adonis, in evidence to the Committee, said: “We are at the forefront … of the measures to strengthen the liberalisation of the European markets. We have been arguing strongly for this at the European level … and we will engage intensively to see that any proposals that the Commission wishes to make, which will strengthen the process of achieving liberalisation of the European freight markets, are carried into being.”
RFG welcomes the commitment by our Government to enable UK businesses to operate and invest across Europe; the report must add pressure on the European Commission to progress much faster to complete the process of creating a single market for rail freight across Europe. Sadly, it appears that the European Transport Commissioner, Antonio Tajani, is dragging his feet, saying after the June Transport Council meeting that he did not see the role of the Commission to act as a policeman to ensure that the First Railway Package was implemented fully and consistently in every member state. He indicated that, since 24 of them had apparently failed to do so, clearly the legislation was not acceptable.
A similar example would be for the police to decide that, as they were stopping so many motorists for speeding on a particular road, clearly the speed limit was too low. RFG has reminded the Commission that one of their main roles is to be the guardian of the Treaty of Rome, which includes policing European legislation to which all member states signed up, but which they may be failing to implement effectively or fully. One of these issues is a single market for rail freight!
Lord Berkeley is Chairman of the Rail Freight Group.
For further information, visit: www.rfg.org.uk
Published: 06/07/2009
