By Henrietta Billings - 16th September 2005
MEPs and national governments are split over controversial new proposals to shake up Europe’s cross border freight and passenger services.
The Third Railway Package, originally scheduled for voting on September 27 in Strasbourg is at the heart of a squabble over future reform of European rail.
The four pronged package – part of the EU’s drive to shift goods off the roads and onto rail - aims to open up cross border passenger services to competition, improve passenger rights, introduce an EU wide certificate for train drivers, and boost the quality of freight services.
But the transport committee rejected the freight proposals and heavily amended two others at a vote in April this year.
And since then national governments and MEPs have been at loggerheads over whether or not to break up the package.
EU capitals do not see the four files as a package and are pushing to progress with the more palatable European train driving licence proposal.
“The council does not consider the four proposals as a package. They are not linked,” said one EU source close to the negotiations.
Most MEPs however, backed by the European Commission, want to keep the “Third Railway package” as just that - a package, forcing member states to deal with the more controversial plans such as liberalisation and passenger rights.
“We want to have also passenger rights and the opening of the railways but we are afraid that the council will only move forward on driving licences and put the other three proposals into the draw,” said Georg Jarzembowski MEP, parliament’s centre right EPP-ED rapporteur on the liberalization report
In a bid to chivvy the council into action over the more politically sensitive dossiers, Jarzembowski, with the backing of most of his committee is pushing for a vote just on the amendments – not the entire reports – in Strasbourg at the end of September.
“The majority of the committee proposes that we only vote on the amendments and do not take the final vote on all four parts of the package next week, to clearly signal to the council that we want a commitment from them to keep the package together,” he said.
“We want by this procedure let the council know our position in substance so that they can have their deliberations on the contents of the report to enable them soon after our vote, to come to a common position.”
Jarzembowski said he expects the full plenary vote to take place in November.
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