Second Railway Package: infringement proceedings against 13 countries

The European Commission has decided to pursue infringement proceedings against the 13 EU countries that have failed to notify the Commission of the transposition of two key directives of the second railway package into domestic legislation. These two directives aim at ensuring high levels of safety and interoperability for rail business across Europe. The Commission is determined to ensure a level playing field for rail across the single market.

The second railway package had to be transposed into national legislation before 30 April 2006. The 13 countries failing to notify the Commission of their transposition of the two directives (2004/49 and 2004/50) are Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic. If any of these Member States fails to respond to the Commission's reasoned opinion (by notifying its transposition measures) within a two-month deadline, the Commission may decide to take the case before the European Court of Justice.

Directive 2004/49/EC on railway safety aims at strengthening rail safety by ensuring full transparency in relation to safety procedures in force. It lays down a procedure for granting the safety certificates every railway company must obtain before it can run trains on the European network. Directive 2004/50/EC updates legislation already in force on the technical interoperability, which is needed in order to operate cross-border services and cut rolling stock costs on the high-speed network.

Further information: Rail transport and interoperability