The Commission supported the Council position given that the compromise reached is very close to the Commission’s original proposal. Furthermore, it creates no additional burden for data providers and is thus in line with the aim of simplifying the existing legal framework for European statistics on rail transport.
With regard to the alignment of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 with the TFEU, despite some limitations, the compromise provides a good balance between delegated and implementing acts. The Commission stated that his text is an example of the successful application of the new Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016.
The main issue blocking the file was reaching an understanding with the European Parliament on the formalisation of the sharing of data between Eurostat, the European Railway Agency (ERA) and the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE) through bilateral Memoranda of Understanding.
A consensus was eventually reached with the signature of two MoU, one between Eurostat and DG MOVE and one between Eurostat and ERA. These gave the European Parliament the guarantee that the data it requested will be processed and made available.
Amendments adopted by the European Parliament: the Commission recalled that on 11 March 2014, the European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution proposing 23 amendments. The Commission rejected the majority of them, including the requests for additional variables. In particular, the European Parliament was of the opinion that data collection should be extended further to include rail infrastructure data, and that there should be more measurement variables for statistics on passenger transport , in particular with regard to cross-border connections that it considered should be at the heart of the EU’s transport policy.
The main amendments relating to the explicit addition of new variables were not included in the Council position.
Provisions modified by the Council: Article 3(2) of the Regulation refers to the sole power conferred on the Commission to adopt delegated acts in order to adapt existing technical definitions and introduce new technical definitions.
Although the Commission regrets the limited nature of the empowerment given relative to the original proposal, it can however consider the current provision acceptable in the spirit of reaching an agreement.
The Commission also approved the new provisions on implementing measures to be adopted laying down the arrangements for the dissemination of results as well as the reports to be presented by the Commission to the European Parliament.