PURPOSE: to modify Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 in order to update, simplify and optimise the existing legal framework for European statistics on rail transport and to align it with the new institutional context.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Eurostat’s rail transport statistics are predominantly based on Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1192/2003 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 332/2007. These Regulations cover passenger and freight transport by rail, as well as rail safety.
The Commission needs statistics on the transport of goods and passengers by rail in order to monitor and develop the common transport policy. Detailed rail transport statistics for goods and passengers and information on intermodality are necessary to monitor the targets set in the 2011 Commission’s White Paper.
Eurostat has conducted a technical analysis of the existing data on rail statistics collected under the Union legislation and of the dissemination policy, within its Working Group and Task Force on rail transport statistics.
In its report to the European Parliament and the Council on the experience acquired in the application of the Regulation (EC) No 91/2003, the Commission mentions that long term developments will probably mean the suppression or simplification of the data already collected under the Regulation, and that the intention is to reduce the data transmission period for annual data on rail passengers.
IMPACT ASSESSMENT: no impact assessment was undertaken. The proposal is the result of in-depth negotiations between all interested parties.
LEGAL BASIS: Article 338(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
CONTENT: the aim of this proposal is thus to modify Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 in order to update, simplify and optimise the existing legal framework for European statistics on rail transport and to align it with the new institutional context.
Data on transport of passengers: in line with Annexes C and D to Regulation (EC) 91/2003 on rail transport statistics, countries are currently required to provide annual statistics on passenger transport, under detailed and/or simplified reporting. The Commission proposed to delete Annex D (simplified reporting) and the provisional Tables C1 and C2 in Annex C, while shortening the deadline for providing the final passenger data from 14 months to eight months after the end of the reference period.
Data on transport of goods: in the interests of consistency, it is also proposed to delete Annex B (simplified reporting).
New Annex: as it is proposed to abandon the current concept of ‘simplified’ reporting, for the smallest undertakings below the specified thresholds, Member States would have to report a ‘total’ figure for aggregated indicators in Annex L.
Data on accidents: as data on accidents are also collected by the European Rail Agency, it is proposed to delete Annex H (statistics on accidents).
Annex I: as the concept of ‘simplified’ reporting will disappear, it is proposed to delete this Annex as it is currently used only to validate coverage between simplified and detailed reporting in relation to the total rail activity of undertakings.
Thresholds: the present thresholds are established for tonne-km and passenger-km, i.e. multiplication of tonnes/passengers transported and the distance covered in kilometres.
As significant rail activity involves only small distances in some Member States, it is proposed to decrease the thresholds both for goods and passengers, in order to minimise the loss of important data. For the same reason, a double threshold in tonnes transported and in tonne-km is proposed for goods.
Transit data: it is proposed that ‘Rail Waybill’ information (if available) be used when administrative data are used as the data source.
Lastly, the proposed amendment of Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 takes into account the necessary adjustments to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union as regards granting the Commission delegated and implementing powers.
BUDGETARY IMPLICATION: this proposal has no implications for the EU budget.
DELEGATED ACTS: the proposal contains provisions empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).