Document

The European Shippers’ Council (ESC) represents the interests of European industry as users of freight transport services in all modes of freight transport (deep sea shipping, short sea shipping, air transport, road transport, rail, inland waterways, both within Europe and overseas). Shippers are primarily producers of goods and services which they market, sell and distribute to their customers.

ESC welcomes the draft recommendations of the four rapporteurs dealing with the second railway package, essentially defending the Parliament’s position from the first reading.

ESC would like to draw special attention to the issue of market-opening, as dealt with in the Jarzembowski draft recommendation. To revitalise the railways, to renew and to maintain them as a serious option for transport users, it is vital that the market is opened for competition as soon as possible. Mr Jarzembowski’s proposal to maintain the date of 1 January 2006 for opening the market of both national and international rail freight transport is warmly supported by ESC.

However, ESC is concerned that the issue of liberalising passenger transport jeopardises the general agreement on the second railway package. Since this does not directly affect our members we will abstain from giving an opinion on the liberalisation of passenger transport, but ESC does call on the Parliament to give consideration to the importance of reaching agreement with the Council before the end of the year, thereby avoiding conciliation.

A second important amendment by Mr Jarzembowski deals with the definition of authorised applicants for slot capacity . It is very important that it also covers shippers and other railway customers. It reduces their dependence on the railway companies, providing a further incentive for the latter to improve their service performance.

Concerning the draft recommendation on safety rules, ESC would like to express its full agreement with Mr Sterckx’s proposal to limit the introduction of new national rules as much as possible and to give the Commission the last word on their admissibility.

With regard to interoperability of networks, ESC’s device is to keep it practical and simple, and limit harmonisation to the minimum number of items needed for the system to work properly and efficiently. It should be avoided that Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) are too expensive to implement, creating additional barriers for new entrants to the rail market. It is very good to take the costs and benefits of all technical solutions into account, but ESC has serious doubts about the relevance of Ms Ainardi’s proposal to extend the cost-benefit evaluation of technical specifications to issues such as market share, environmental and social issues. Ms Ainardi’s amendment 2 implies such exhaustive research that it would unnecessarily complicate and put a brake on TSI development.

Finally, regarding Mr Savary’s draft recommendations on the European Railway Agency, ESC draws attention to the difficulty that would be generated by Mr Savary’s proposal to have the representatives of the sector appointed by their respective European professional organisations. Would they have to decide amongst themselves who is representative and who is not? In our view the Commission should appoint the representatives of the sectors concerned (railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, railway industry, workers unions, passengers and freight customers) on the basis of their representativeness at European level and expertise.

For further information contact: Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of the ESC - Brussels 00 322 230 2113