Rail transport statistics

After the European Parliament first reading, the Council adopted a common position unanimously. Three of the five amendments proposed by the European Parliament have been incorporated in the common position either in full or in part or principle. Overall, the common position is in line with the original proposal of the Commission since the Council has approved the general structure and the main provisions of the proposal. Yet, the confidentiality provisions for the use and dissemination of the data of the common position are stricter than originally proposed by the Commission, but in line with the Member States' statistical law and practice. As regards the amendments by the Parliament accepted by the Commission and incorporated in the common position, these concern: - the modification of Recital 4 bringing it into line with the final state of the Directive 2001/12/EC (which was not known when the rail statistics proposal was finalised); - the addition of a new part to Article 2, taking part of the text from paragraph 16 of the Explanatory Memorandum. This will require an operator to supply separate data for each country in which the operator provides rail services. The common position does not include the following amendment which was accepted by both the Parliament and the Commission which introduces into Annex G, for data on network traffic, a breakdown by type of passenger train. As regards the amendments by the Parliament not accepted by the Commission but incorporated in the Common Position, these refer to: - the deletion of the reference in Annex I to "metros and light rail". Following other changes made to Annex I in the Council Transport Working Group. With regard to the new provisions introduced by the Council, the changes made concern: - thresholds for reporting : the original proposal provided for two thresholds. To avoid inconsistent treatment of operators in larger and smaller Member States, it was agreed to remove one threshold and to specify the second threshold explicitly as 500 million tonne-km or 200 million passenger-km, with the possibility of later adaptation through the committee procedure. These changes make clear which operators will be covered by simplified reporting, and ensure a more consistent coverage of the market across all Member States; - disclosure of confidential data: the Commission originally wanted to disclose all confidential data unless the disclosure would have been explicitly forbidden by the undertaking providing the data. This disclosure "by default" was opposed based on the current statistical law and practice. In the new text, the confidential data will not be disclosed by default. However, the Member States are obliged to ask the undertakings for permission for the disclosure of all confidential data and to inform Eurostat of the result of this consultation; - reporting : the report will also include an analysis of the impact of confidentiality on the quality of the rail transport statistics.�