The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure companies (CER) welcomes the decision of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism to ask for two briefing notes concerning two important issues debated within the context of the European Commission proposal to recast the first railway package, and closely followed the debate that has been held yesterday on the two notes, which relate to:

1) the impact of the separation between infrastructure management and transport operations on the railway sector in the European Union, and on

2) the typology and structure of regulatory bodies in the EU-railway sector.

The second briefing note clearly indicates that strong, independent and adequately resourced regulatory bodies are essential for the smooth development of competition on the market. These conclusions were strongly supported by all members of the TRAN Committee. CER fully supports this position.

The findings of the first briefing note do not appear as clear-cut as those of the second note. This was reflected in the TRAN Committee discussions today.

The note contains amongst others, a list of advantages and disadvantages of vertical separation. The advantages discussed are transparency, cost efficiency, neutrality, competition and privatization (page 19). The disadvantages commented upon are transitional costs, loss of economies of scope, information asymmetry, decreased incentive to invest in infrastructure, double marginalization, coordination problems, lower level of reliability and safety and possible negative impact on competition (page 20-21). Given the complexity of the issue, CER will take more time to evaluate the arguments presented in the briefing note and by MEPs during yesterday’s discussion in the TRAN Committee.

In any case, CER would like to recall its long standing view that efficient competition requires the combination of market opening, adequate financing of the infrastructure (and public service obligations) and competent and independent regulatory control.

CER regrets that no Central Eastern European member state was included in the case studies in the first briefing note. “It is regretful that the legal and economic situation of more than half of the EU member states is too often omitted, as if enlargement had never taken place”, said Johannes Ludewig, CER Executive Director.