The Commission presented a communication concerning
the position of the Council on the adoption of a Directive of the
European Parliament and of the Council on railway safety
(Recast).
The Commission considered that the political agreement
adopted by the Transport Council on 10 December 2015 supports
the main objectives of the Commission proposal to simplify the
process for granting safety certificates. However, the political
agreement differs from the Commission proposal in some
respects, namely it gives railway undertakings operating in
only one Member State the choice to apply for a safety certificate
to either the Agency or the domestic national safety authorities
(NSAs).
However, in both cases the procedure and the decision
criteria would remain the same
In addition, the Council position:
- clarifies the role and responsibilities of the actors
of the rail system to improve the safety level, through the
strengthening of the provisions on the respective role of the
actors of the rail system in developing and improving railway
safety. Infrastructure managers and railway undertakings should
have a major responsibility for the safe operation of the train and
that they should be obliged to establish safety management
systems;
- clarifies that the Agency is accountable in the
context of issuing safety certificates and that it is fully
responsible for the single safety certificate it
issued;
- provides for an appeal procedure for applicants
reflecting the possibility given to refer the matter to a national
court in case of disagreement with the decision taken by the Agency
or by a NSA;
- states in more detail how the Agency and the NSAs are
to cooperate when issuing single safety certificates;
- provides details on the supervision activities of the
NSAs and how they relate to certification;
- provides implementing powers to the Commission for
establishing the reporting structure for accident and incident
investigation reports.
The Council position also includes new provisions
addressing specific cases and the concerns of some Member
States.
While the Commission considered the above-mentioned
points as acceptable, it regretted the following aspects of
the Council position:
- the transposition time-limit increased from 2 to 3 years;
- all modifications introduced in relation to the
delegated and implementing powers, including the systematic
recourse to the non-opinion clause, which is contrary to the letter
and to the spirit of Article 5§4 second subparagraph, point b)
of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 on comitology;
- the suppression of the obligation of the Member State
to supply to the Commission information which is clear and precise
as regards the transposition of Directives in national law,
as acknowledged by the European Parliament, the Council and the
Commission in their Joint Political Declaration of 27 October 2011
on explanatory documents.
In a spirit of compromise, the Commission accepted
the position adopted by the Council thus allowing the European
Parliament to adopt the final text in a second reading, together
with the other five proposals under the Fourth Railway
Package.
Indeed, the Commission considers that
simultaneously adopting both the market and technical
pillars would maximise the benefits in terms of the quality of
service, efficiency and the competitiveness of the rail
industry.