The common position of the Council only takes up one of the seven amendments accepted by the
Commission in its amended proposal, i.e. the amendment calling on the Commission to report
every two years to the European Parliament and the Council on the progress made towards
achieving interoperability.
Moreover, the Council included major amendments, the most significant of which concern the
following points:
- Objective of interoperability: the term 'trans-European rail system' replaces the term 'European
network';
- Content of the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs):
.TSIs concerning the environment, operation or users will be drawn up only where this would be
necessary to ensure interoperability in structural areas;
.the coherence of the trans-European railway system which the observance of the TSIs permits
must not jeopardize the coherence of each existing national network
- Criteria for drawing up TSIs:
.TSIs must take account of the cost of the various technical solutions for achieving
interoperability; the joint representative body must submit an assessment of the costs and benefits
of each of those solutions;
.the joint representative body must work in a transparent manner and in accordance with general
Community harmonisation procedures
- Option afforded to the Member States not to apply certain TSIs in specific cases: in all such
cases, the Member State concerned must notify its intended derogation to the Commission in
advance and provide it with the appropriate clarification and justification;
- Notified bodies: a procedure is laid down for cases in which a Member State or the
Commission consider that a body notified by another Member State does not meet the other
relevant criteria;
- Committee: the advisory committee is replaced by a type III-b committee;
- Annex I: the annex has been redrafted to take account of the following points:
.as regards infrastructure, of the common position concerning the proposal for a Decision on the
guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network;
.as regards rolling stock, of the possibility of reaching speeds of over 300 km/h in appropriate
circumstances;
- Annex II: the Council has eliminated the list of sectors referred to in each of the subsystems;
- Annex III (essential requirements) : deletion of the paragraphs relating to 'Nature of
requirements', 'consumer protection' and 'Users'.
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