Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2013)27 - EU Agency for Railways

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dossier COM(2013)27 - EU Agency for Railways.
source COM(2013)27 EN
date 30-01-2013
1. CONTEXT OF THE PROPOSAL

4.

1.1. Recent EU policy developments in the railway field


In its White Paper ‘Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system’, adopted on 28 March 2011 (‘the 2011 White Paper’), the Commission set out its vision of a Single European Railway Area, i.e. an internal railway market in which European railway undertakings could provide services without unnecessary technical and administrative barriers.

The European Council conclusions of January 2012 also highlight the importance of releasing the growth-creating potential of a fully integrated Single Market, for network industries as well as others. Furthermore, the Commission Communication on Action for Stability, Growth and Jobs adopted on 30 May 2012 stresses the importance of reducing further the regulatory burden and barriers to entry in the rail sector, making country-specific recommendations for this purpose. And on 6 June 2012, the Commission adopted the Communication on strengthening the governance of the single market, which likewise stresses the importance of the transport sector[3].

In the last decade, the EU railway market has seen massive changes, gradually introduced by three legislative ‘railway packages’ (and some accompanying acts) intended to open up the national markets and make railways more competitive and interoperable at EU level, while maintaining a high level of safety. However, despite the considerable development of EU laws and other measures (the ‘EU acquis’) establishing an internal market for rail transport services, the railways’ share of intra-EU transport has remained modest. The Commission has therefore come forward with a Fourth Railway Package to enhance the quality and efficiency of rail services by removing the remaining market obstacles.

The present Regulation is a component of the Fourth Railway Package focusing on the removal of remaining administrative and technical barriers, in particular by establishing a common approach to safety and interoperability rules to increase economies of scale for railway undertakings active across the EU, decreasing administrative costs and accelerating administrative procedures, as well as avoiding disguised discrimination, through a European Union Agency for Railways. It is intended to replace the original founding Regulation, and add new important tasks to the Agency making it a truly European Railway Authority in the field of interoperability and safety.

5.

1.2. Why to replace existing Regulation 881/2004 (as amended) with a new act?


Since 2004, when the original founding Regulation was drafted, a number of developments have taken place in relation to the European railways and the Agency. There has been mounting evidence on the functioning of the EU railway internal market, also in relation to its interoperability and safety aspects. New legislation emerged which resulted in amending the Agency Regulation (2008) or which developed the existing tasks of ERA without changing its Regulation (e.g. Decision 2011/155/EU).

The impact assessment report accompanying this proposal has identified a number of measures which would give new powers to the Agency and streamline existing processes.

Moreover, a number of changes have to be introduced to improve the functioning of the Agency in result of the evaluation of ERA founding Regulation and of the Agency (2009-2010) as well as the recommendations of the Joint Statement of the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council on decentralised agencies (2012), and the Position paper of the Administrative Board on the future of the Agency (2012). This concerns particularly improvements to internal structure, governance and decision-making of the Agency, and its relations with stakeholders.

A new Regulation will also help to clarify the structure of the legal act (e.g. by removing and renumbering the Articles) and make it more logical (e.g. by moving some Articles to more relevant Chapters, creating new Chapters and deleting the obsolete ones). Finally, the Interoperability and Safety Directives are also being amended within this legislative package and they are closely related to the tasks of ERA, therefore this Regulation has to properly take this into account.

On the basis above, and taking into account the advice of the Legal Service, the Commission intends to propose a new ERA Regulation replacing original Regulation 881/2004. There is a number of changes in relation to Regulation 881/2004, which can be grouped in three different categories:

· New provisions: new tasks of the Agency (issuing vehicle authorisations for placing on the market, authorisations for placing in service of trackside control-command and signalling sub-systems and safety certificates), reinforced control over national authorities, more powers in relation to national rules, new source of ERA’s budget (fees and charges), the Board of Appeal; some new provisions – especially in the internal organisation part – result from the Common Approach on the EU agencies.

· Clarification/simplification of existing provisions: especially in relation to working methods, the ERTMS, railway staff, registers, other tasks.

· Updates due to the evolution of the legislative and political framework: provisions concerning internal structure and operation, as well as references to comitology procedures and delegated acts.

· Editorial changes in relation to the original Regulation.

6.

1.3. Links between this Regulation and the Interoperability and Safety Directives


Directive 2008/57/EC (Railway Interoperability Directive) and Directive 2004/49/EC (Railway Safety Directive) are closely linked with original Regulation 881/2004. In the 4th railway package, these Directives are proposed to be recast; they will, nevertheless, remain closely linked with the present Regulation. This predominantly stems from the fact that the Agency acts in the fields of railway interoperability and safety for which those directives provide the legal basis.

In the present Regulation, the links concern in particular:

– technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs; Interoperability Directive), common safety targets (CSTs; Safety Directive) and common safety methods (CSMs; Safety Directive): the Agency is responsible for drawing up recommendations for them to be adopted by the Commission, and for issuing opinions to the Commission regarding non-application of TSIs;

– safety certificates: the Agency is responsible for issuing them, while the full procedure is provided in the Safety Directive;

– registers: the Agency is responsible for issuing recommendations to the Commission regarding specification for registers (referred to in the Interoperability Directive) and their revision, and ensuring there are accessible to the public;

– authorisations for placing on the market for railway vehicles and types of vehicles and authorisation for placing in service of trackside control-command and signalling sub-systems: the Agency is responsible for issuing them, while the full procedure for applying for them is provided in the Interoperability Directive;

– telematics applications and European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS): these are specific areas governed by relevant TSIs adopted under the Interoperability Directive where the Agency has an important role to play being a system authority;

– notified conformity assessment bodies: the Agency is responsible for supporting and monitoring their activities while they are created and given tasks by the Interoperability Directive;

– national safety authorities: the Agency is responsible for supporting and monitoring their activities while they are created and given tasks by the Safety Directive;

– national railway rules: the Agency is responsible for their examination with a view to their reduction while the procedure for their notification is provided for in the Safety and Interoperability Directives.

1.

RESULTS OF CONSULTATIONS WITH THE INTERESTED PARTIES AND IMPACT ASSESSMENTS



The Commission services have discussed the developments of the Single European Railway Area with sector representatives on an on-going basis. In 2010-2011 it conducted an ex post evaluation of Regulation 881/2004 and the functioning of the European Union Agency for Railways i. This evaluation, together with the general evaluation of the EU Agencies in 2009, showed the added value provided by the Agency and in general a positive opinion of stakeholders in relation to ERA and its outputs. The results of the evaluation have been used as an important input and preparatory work to the subsequent process of impact assessment linked with the revision of the Regulation.

The European Commission carried out a thorough impact assessment to support legislative proposals on improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the Single European Railway Area in the field of interoperability and safety. An Impact Assessment Steering Group (IASG) was created in June 2011 to which all DGs were invited by DG MOVE to participate.

An external consultant drafted an impact assessment support study and conducted a targeted consultation of stakeholders. The targeted consultation started on 18 November 2011 with an internet survey that finished on 30 December 2011. It was followed by interviews with the most significant stakeholders and a stakeholder workshop at the end of February 2012.

Since then, DG MOVE has engaged in bilateral meetings with the sector to gauge their views on what should be done in the Fourth Package in the area of interoperability and safety.

Given the technical nature of the initiative, no public consultation was carried out. However, the Commission took care that all interested parties were consulted in due time and discussions covered all the key elements of the initiative.

Impact Assessment Board:

On 5 September 2012 the Impact Assessment Board met and subsequently gave a positive opinion. The Board’s main recommendations were incorporated in the impact assessment report:

– more statistics and information on stakeholders’ consultation were added;

– expected synergies with other elements of the Fourth Railway Package were added and indirect impacts clarified;

– the core measures common to options 2-5 were described in more detail and clarified regarding their differentiation;

– the methods used to assess impact were clarified and better explained; the logic was brought out by better cross-referencing;

– administrative costs for economic actors (railway operators) and the cost to public administrations (national authorities, ERA and the Commission) were distinguished more clearly.

Options identified:

Based on the screening of individual measures, the Commission has identified five policy options (options 2-6), besides the baseline scenario. By construction, options 2-5 concern primarily the level of interaction between the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA or the Agency) and national authorities and are all capable of tackling the three operational objectives. Option 6 is a set of horizontal measures which are mostly independent of the interactions between ERA and national authorities and can be applied on top of any of the option 2-5, with expected reinforcement of the overall final impact.

Option 1: Baseline scenario (do nothing) — continuing on the path that is currently set out for the sector

7.

Option 2: Greater coordination role for the Agency in ensuring a consistent approach to certification of railway undertakings and vehicle authorisation


Option 3: ERA as a one-stop-shop, where the final decision on certification and authorisation remains with the NSAs but ERA performs entry and exit checks of applications and of the decisions

Option 4: ERA and NSAs share competencies, where the final decision on certification and authorisation is taken by the Agency

Option 5: ERA takes over activities of NSAs in relation to certification of railway undertakings and vehicle authorisation

Option 6: Horizontal measures, includes other legislative and soft measures (beyond sharing the responsibilities between national authorities and ERA) that could be implemented to improve the competitiveness of the rail sector, like enhancing the role of ERA in the dissemination of railway-related information and training or migrating from national technical and safety rules to a system of EU rules (through the identification of unnecessary rules by ERA and NSAs and then the requirement for national authorities to remove those rules, as well as limiting the possibility of adopting new rules).

Impacts of the options: The environmental impact of all the options was assessed as positive, though low. The social impact of all the options was assessed as low/marginal.

The table below presents the economic benefits (efficiency) and number of objectives met (effectiveness) for combined options:

Option| Efficiency (Total Net Benefit € m)| Effectiveness (number of operational objectives met)

Option 2+6: Further ERA ‘Coordination’ + horizontal measures| 1

Option 3+6: ERA as One-Stop-Shop+ horizontal measures| 2

Option 4+6: ERA and NSAs share competencies + horizontal measures| 3

Option 5+6: ERA takes over activities of NSAs regarding authorisation & certification+ horizontal measures| 3

It was concluded that Option 4 (combined with option 6) was the preferred option as it provides the best balance of outcomes in relation to:

– the industry, in terms of reduced costs and timescales for safety certification and vehicle and other sub-system authorisation;

– cost implications for the EU budget;

– the cost impacts on national institutions;

– accordance with the subsidiarity and proportionality principles;

– addressing the problems identified, and

– meeting the objectives.

More information on the impact assessment and the results of the stakeholder consultation is provided in the Commission staff working document accompanying legislative proposals to eliminate remaining administrative and technical barriers in the field of interoperability and safety on the EU railway market. It will be published on the website of the Secretariat-General of the Commission following the adoption of this legal act.

2.

LEGAL ELEMENTS OF THE PROPOSAL



This section comments on and explains the main provisions of the new ERA Regulation, when necessary in relation to amendments to the original text of Regulation 881/2004.

CHAPTER 1 PRINCIPLES:

Article 1: the objectives have been revised to reflect new tasks of the Agency and moved to the recitals; instead, a 'subject matter and scope' is given, for clarity.

Article 2: legal status moved here as more appropriate (previously original Article 22).

Article 3: amended to properly reflect new types of acts of the Agency.

CHAPTER 2 WORKING METHODS:

New chapter added to cover issues which were originally in other chapters but which in fact relate to the methods by which ERA attains its objectives.

Article 4: 'working parties' article rewritten for legal clarity, in particular: the reference to AEIF is obsolete now and can be deleted; original Article 24 i was moved here instead of the article on ERA staff; rules of procedure to be adopted by the Board.

Article 7: 'impact assessment'; the original text limited cost-benefit analysis to safety only (Article 6(4)); this task should not be part of any particular Agency activity, hence the need to move the paragraphs into a general section, make it generally applicable and provide clear tasks; this is in accordance with the Position paper of the Board on the future of ERA and the principles of activity-based budgeting and management.

Article 8: 'studies'; previously Article 20 — moved as studies are means of achieving the objectives and not tasks as such.

Article 9: 'opinions'; formerly Article 10 on Technical Opinions; the word ‘technical’ is deleted, in line with the directives; paragraph 2a(b) removed as obsolete; paragraph 3 (original paragraph 2b) amended to broaden its scope (previously limited to TSIs only, without a clear rationale).

Article 10: 'visits to Member States'; previously Article 33 — moved to this section as the visits are means of achieving the Agency’s objectives.

CHAPTER 3 TASKS RELATING TO RAILWAY SAFETY:

Article 11: "technical support – safety"; minor changes clarifying the Agency’s tasks.

Article 12: 'safety certificates'; new role of ERA (issuing of safety certificates), as proposed in the IA report, in line with the revised Safety Directive.

Article 13: 'maintenance of vehicles'; new article — left over from original Chapter 3a, simplified and moved to the safety part as being the most relevant.

Article 14: 'transport of dangerous goods by rail'; new article, formalising what ERA is actually doing already in the field of transport of dangerous goods by rail.

CHAPTER 4 TASKS RELATING TO INTEROPERABILITY:

Article 15: "technical support – interoperability"; amended slightly to reflect changes in the Interoperability Directive (points b and c) and to clarify the existing tasks of ERA.

Article 16: 'vehicle authorisations'; new article — covering ERA’s new role in issuing vehicle authorisations for placing on the market, as proposed in the IA report, in line with the amended Interoperability Directive.

Article 17: 'authorisations for type of vehicles'; new article — covering ERA’s new role in issuing authorisations for placing on the market for types of vehicles, in line with the amended Interoperability Directive.

Article 18: 'authorisation for placing in service of trackside control-command and signalling sub-systems'; new article — covering ERA’s new role regarding authorisation of track-side control-command and signalling equipment; linked with ERA’s role as the system authority and the consequences of the new task of issuing of vehicle authorisations for placing on the market for the ERTMS (in order to ensure that the authorisations for placing on the market issued for vehicles with ERTMS equipment on board are consistent with track-side systems).

Article 19: 'telematics applications'; new article added to formalise the existing role ERA plays already, according to TAP/TAF TSI, and in line with the IA report.

Article 20: 'support for the notified conformity assessment bodies'; amended — provisions on Commission monitoring of notified bodies have been moved to the new section on monitoring; the remainder is support for notified bodies (the Commission assigned tasks relating to the Technical Secretariat of the NB Rail to the Agency as of 20 April 2011 and this activity is already on-going; this needs to be properly reflected in the legislation).

CHAPTER 5 TASKS RELATING TO NATIONAL RULES (moved after the chapter on interoperability):

Articles 21, 22 and 23: 'national rules'; new articles which incorporate original Articles 9a and 9b, amended to align procedures with the Interoperability and Safety Directives and take into account the extended powers of ERA in relation to national rules resulting from the IA report and draft report of the Task Force on National Safety Rules; management of the IT database given clearly to ERA, in order to clarify previous mixed responsibilities (Commission and ERA) and to overcome current technical, coordination and ownership problems.

CHAPTER 6 TASKS RELATING TO ERTMS: the ERTMS section deserves a separate new chapter.

Articles 24-28: 'ERTMS tasks' these incorporate the original Article 21a, amended to clarify the responsibilities of the Agency and other actors in relation to the ERTMS, to improve ERTMS deployment, and to reflect what ERA is already currently doing in this field; Article 13e amended in line with preliminary Commission evaluation of four years of technical follow-up.

CHAPTER 7 TASKS RELATING TO MONITORING SINGLE EUROPEAN RAILWAY AREA: new chapter — various tasks related to monitoring are now combined together in one chapter for better visibility and clarity.

Article 29: 'monitoring of national safety authorities'; new article — new ERA task: control over NSAs, as proposed in the IA report (and in the evaluation of the ERA Regulation).

Article 30: 'monitoring of notified bodies'; new article — new ERA task: control over notified bodies, as proposed in the IA report.

Article 31: 'monitoring progress of interoperability and safety'; partly based on original Article 9 (new paragraphs 1 and 2, with ERA’s tasks in relation to safety monitoring now clarified), on original Article 14 (new paragraphs 3 and 4, with two separate reports on interoperability and safety now merged into one); paragraph 5 — based on Article 21b (2a), in accordance with the IA report and the evaluation of the ERA Regulation.

CHAPTER 8 OTHER TASKS – new chapter combining previous chapters on registers, railway staff and other tasks:

Article 32: 'railway staff'; combines original Articles 16b, 16c and 17 to simplify: some tasks are obsolete, others are described in Directive 2007/59; amended to avoid legal ambiguity and repetition.

Article 33: 'registers'; this article combines original Articles 18 and 19, updated and aligned with legislation.

Article 34: 'networks of national safety authorities, investigating bodies and representative bodies'; previously partly in original Article 6(5) and Article 9; the network of representative bodies has been added (paragraph 2) to improve and structure coordination of stakeholders at Agency level; paragraph 3 has been added to improve and structure consultation of all stakeholders, and ultimately to obtain higher quality outputs from the Agency (in line with the evaluation of ERA Regulation and Position paper on the future of ERA).

Article 35: 'communication and dissemination'; new article, formalising partly the existing activities of ERA and stemming from IA report, the evaluation of the ERA Regulation and the Position paper on the future of the Agency.

Article 36: 'research and promotion of innovation'; original article with research added, formalising what ERA is already doing to a large extent; in line with the Position paper of the Board on the Future of ERA.

Article 37: 'assistance to the Commission'; amended slightly.

Article 38: 'assistance with the assessment of rail projects'; originally Article 15, scope was extended to cover safety.

Article 39: 'assistance to MS and stakeholders'; new article, following the IA report (measure from Option 6) and the results of the evaluation of the ERA Regulation.

Article 40: 'international relations'; new article formalising what ERA is already doing to a large extent; in line with the IA report and the Position paper of the Board on the Future of ERA.

Article 41: 'spare parts'; new article — new task in line with the IA report.

CHAPTER 9 ORGANISATION OF THE AGENCY: drafted largely to follow the Joint Statement of the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council on decentralised agencies and the Common Approach (2012), in particular in relation to: extended competences of the Management Board (previously Administrative); creation of Executive Board; multi-annual work programme; other standard provisions regarding HR and budgetary issues.

Other important changes:

Article 48: 'annual and multi-annual work programmes'; new, separate article on work programmes deemed useful for clarity; in accordance with the Joint Statement and recommendations of the CoA, EP, the evaluation of the ERA Regulation and the Position paper of the ERA Board on the Future of the Agency (multi-annual perspective, ABB and ABM, relations with stakeholders).

Articles 51-57: 'Board of Appeal'; new articles — Board of Appeal necessary following extension of ERA competences (issuing of vehicle authorisations for placing on the market and safety certificates); IA report provides for the creation of an independent Appeal Body outside the Agency, however, it seems that the solution already in place at the EASA is more appropriate; based on the relevant provisions of the EASA Regulation.

CHAPTER 10 FINANCIAL PROVISIONS:

Article 58: new point (c) — new sources of ERA income added (external fees and charges for issuing vehicle authorisations for placing on the market and safety certificates (new tasks)); new point (e) — to bring it into line with the EASA regulation

CHAPTER 11 STAFF: new chapter, following largely standard provisions resulting from the Common Approach on agencies (Articles 62 and 63).

Article 61: "staff – general provisions"; originally Article 24, amended in accordance with the Joint Statement on agencies, the evaluation of the ERA Regulation and the Position paper of the ERA Board on the Future of the Agency; previous limitations of maximum contract deleted.

CHAPTER 12 GENERAL PROVISIONS:

Articles 64, 66-68, 70-72: moved from other parts of the original Regulation, amended if necessary following Joint Statement on agencies.

Article 65: 'headquarters agreement and operating conditions'; new article, following the Joint Statement on decentralised agencies (2012).

Article 69: 'cooperation with national authorities and bodies'; new articles resulting from new powers of ERA to issue certificates and authorisations; cooperation with national bodies and authorities in some cases deemed necessary due to their expertise; possibility of (sub)contract part of ERA's tasks.

8.

CHAPTER 13 FINAL PROVISIONS: new chapter


Article 73 and 74: 'delegated acts'; new articles — following ERA’s new powers (to issue safety certificates and vehicle authorisations for placing on the market, own resources) there is a need to adopt delegated measures; this is similar to the case of EASA.

Article 75: 'committee procedure'; new article, made in order not to refer to other acts (Interoperability Directive).

Article 76: 'evaluation and review'; original article amended in accordance with the Joint Statement on agencies.

ARTICLES WHICH STAYED THE SAME AS IN REGULATION 881/2004: 5, 6, 58, 59, 60.

3.

BUDGETARY IMPLICATION



This new Regulation provides a legislative basis for budgetary and staff commitments in relation to the European Union Agency for Railways. The detailed calculations are provided in the Annex, in the Legislative Financial Statement.

It is important to point out that, as far as ERA staffing is concerned, the present act incorporates:

1. resources calculations from two previous Financial Legislative Statements attached to the original Regulation 881/2004 and the 2008 amendment to it (Regulation 1335/2008), which provided for 104 temporary staff for ERA;

2. budgetary procedures for 2005-2013 by which the Budgetary Authority granted ERA an extra 39 posts to cover additional tasks not reflected in the founding Regulation, resulting in total 143 temporary staff posts in 2013;

3. the estimated resources implications of the new tasks and enhanced powers of ERA envisaged in the current new Regulation, set at 43 persons.

Regarding point 2, note that the number of posts has gradually increased since ERA was set up in 2005. This change has been subject to detailed annual scrutiny and has been adopted by the budgetary authority every year in accordance with the number of posts proposed by the Commission. The main explanation for the difference between point 1 and 2 is that a number of functions and activities such as legal affairs, Data Protection Officer, Secretariat for the Administrative Board, internal audit, quality and business planning, economic evaluation (impact assessment), procurement, facilities management, and a Head of Administration were not provided for in the founding Regulation — or at least not planned to be carried out by dedicated staff. For some areas of activity, including HR, IT and Finance, resource needs were considerably underestimated.

Concerning economic evaluation, this activity follows from the fact that ERA was set up to contribute to an integrated and competitive railway area. It has been an integral part of the Agency’s activities from the beginning — even if no dedicated staff were provided for in the financial statement. The need for this activity is unquestionable and has recently grown in line with the Activity-Based Budgeting approach; this is reflected in the fact that a new Article is proposed for inclusion in the new Agency Regulation.

In addition to these developments, various Commission acts have given the Agency additional tasks with resource implications, without being properly reflected in the financial statement. For example, Commission Decision 2011/155/EU on the publication and management of the reference document referred to in Article 27 i of Directive 2008/57/EC put additional tasks on the Agency in relation to making transparent and simplifying the processes and rules used for authorising railway vehicles and subsystems. More specifically, ERA’s role concerns documentation of authorisation processes in Member States, documentation of national rules applied to the authorisation of railway vehicles and checking of data consistencies, support to National Safety Authorities and management and maintenance of data.

Regarding point 3, the budgetary and staff implications of new and extended tasks stem principally from the impact assessment calculations, implementation of the recommendations in the Joint Statement by the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council on decentralised agencies, Court of Auditors and Internal Audit Service recommendations, and the evaluation of the ERA Regulation. All the changes in legislation are substantially explained in part 3 of this Memorandum. The total of 70 persons is estimated to be needed to deal with these new and extended tasks, with 43 additional staff in relation to the current level of staffing of the Agency. These 43 new persons will be dealing with issuing authorisations and certificates and will be covered by external fees and charges while the remaining needs of 27 persons will be covered by internal redeployment of existing staff of the Agency. Therefore, there will be no additional impact on the EU budget (except for years 2015 and 2016, when external fees and charges will not be available yet).

The planned additional personnel of 43 would cover the following categories:

· Technical experts (41 persons), to deal with issuing of authorisations for placing on the market of vehicles and vehicles types (30), authorisations for placing in service of trackside control-command and signalling sub-systems (6) and safety certificates (5);

· Linked administrative staff , including an accountant to deal with management of a planned system of external fees and charges, including cooperation with national authorities.

The external fees and charges would also cover linked overhead costs, mainly:

· Translation of decisions issued by ERA into national languages;

· IT system needed for accountancy purposes (external fees and charges).

The remaining 27 persons, to be covered by internal redeployment of existing staff of the Agency, would deal with:

· Monitoring of national safety authorities and notified bodies, and implementation of national safety and interoperability legislation ;

· Reduction of number of national rules ;

· Advice and support to Member States and stakeholders, dissemination of railway-related information and training and coordination of potential spare parts to be standardised .

The overall budgetary implication of ERA for the EU budget in 2015-2020 is estimated at € 157.113 M. The cost to the EU budget of new tasks amounts to € 0.4113 M as from 2017 onwards they will be covered by fees and charges paid by the industry.

There is also impact on Commission resources (in the DG MOVE). With regard to this, the present Regulation incorporates:

1. resources calculations from two previous Legislative Financial Statements attached to the original Regulation 881/2004 and the 2008 amendment to it (Regulation 1335/2008), which provided for two officials/temporary staff for the Commission;

2. changes for 2005-2013, with three extra Commission staff dealing with ERA-related issues, to cover additional tasks not reflected in the founding Regulation;

The overall total for the Commission linked to the current initiative will be 5 persons, with no new staff requested.