Considerations on COM(2013)26 - Repeal of Regulation 1192/69 on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings

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dossier COM(2013)26 - Repeal of Regulation 1192/69 on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings.
document COM(2013)26 EN
date December 14, 2016
 
table>(1)Council Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69 (4) allows Member States to compensate 40 enumerated railway undertakings for the payment of obligations which undertakings of other transport modes do not have to support. The correct application of the rules for normalisation results in the exemption of Member States from State aid notification obligations.
(2)A series of Union legal acts has been adopted opening up the rail freight and international rail passenger markets to competition and establishing, in the case of Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (5), certain fundamental principles, which include: that railway undertakings are to be managed in accordance with the principles that apply to commercial companies; that entities responsible for the allocation of capacity and charging for rail infrastructure are to be separate from entities which operate rail services, and that there is to be a separation of accounts; that any railway undertaking licensed in accordance with Union criteria is to have access to railway infrastructure on a fair and non-discriminatory basis; and that infrastructure managers may benefit from State financing.

(3)Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69 is inconsistent and incompatible with legislative measures currently in force. In particular, in the context of a liberalised market, where railway undertakings compete directly with the enumerated railway undertakings, it is no longer appropriate to treat those two groups differently from one another.

(4)In order to eliminate inconsistencies in the Union legal order and with a view to contributing to simplification by eliminating a legal act which has become obsolete, it is therefore appropriate to repeal Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69.

(5)Member States may pay compensation for the costs of crossing facilities on the basis of Article 8 of Directive 2012/34/EU. They may, nevertheless, need time to amend their national law and administrative provisions to take account of the repeal of Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69. As a consequence, this repeal should not take immediate effect for cases covered by Annex IV to Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69,