EU must enforce rail liberalisation, say MEPs
The European Commission should launch infringement proceedings without delay against EU Member States who have not yet opened up their rail networks to competition, says the European Parliament in a resolution adopted on Thursday.
France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain and 17 other countries are in the firing line. The directives of the "first rail package", which aimed to enable rail companies to compete through ensuring fair access to infrastructure capacity by making infrastructure managers independent, should have been transposed in national law by 2003.
In today's resolution, adopted by show of hands, MEPs criticise Member States for their slowness in implementing the EU legislation. They call on the Commission to take legal action against the laggards without delay.
The directives were intended to revitalise the rail sector by creating an integrated European rail area, but the share of rail in the overall transport sector has not increased in the last ten years.
The 22 states that have still not implemented EU rules and continue to "prevent fair competition in the rail market" are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia and Slovakia.