The progressive establishment of a European railway area without frontiers requires Community action in the field of the technical regulations applicable to railways with regard to both the technical aspects and the safety aspects, the two being inextricably linked.
(2)
Council Directive 91/440/EEC of 29 July 1991 on the development of the Community's railways (5) provides for progressively opening up rights of access to the infrastructure to any licensed Community railway undertakings which wish to operate goods services.
(3)
Council Directive 95/18/EC of 19 June 1995 on the licensing of railway undertakings (6) provides that all railway undertakings must hold a licence and that a licence issued in a Member State shall be valid throughout the Community.
(4)
Directive 2001/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2001 on the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and the levying of charges for the use of railway infrastructure and safety certification (7) establishes a new framework with the aim of creating a European railway area without frontiers.
(5)
The technical and operational differences between the railway systems of the Member States have compartmentalised the national rail markets and prevented dynamic development of this sector on a European scale. Council Directive 96/48/EC of 23 July 1996 on the interoperability of the Trans-European high-speed rail system (8) and Directive 2001/16/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2001 on the interoperability of the Trans-European conventional rail system (9) define essential requirements and establish a mechanism for defining mandatory technical specifications for interoperability.
(6)
Simultaneous pursuit of the goals of safety and interoperability requires substantial technical work which must be led by a specialised body. That is why it is necessary to create, within the existing institutional framework and with respect for the balance of power in the Community, a European Agency responsible for railway safety and interoperability (hereinafter referred to as 'the Agency'). The creation of such an Agency will provide a means of considering the safety and interoperability goals for the European rail network jointly and with a high level of expertise and in this way contributing to revitalising the railways and to the general objectives of the common transport policy.
(7)
In order to promote the establishment of a European railway area without borders and to help revitalise the railway sector while reinforcing its essential advantages in terms of safety, the Agency should contribute to the development of a genuine European railway culture and form an essential tool of dialogue, consultation and exchange between all the actors in the railway sector, having due regard for their individual competences.
(8)
Directive 2004/ /EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of on safety on the Community's railways (Railway Safety Directive) (10) provides for the development of common safety indicators, common safety targets and common safety methods. Development of these tools requires independent technical expertise.
(9)
In order to facilitate the procedures for issuing safety certificates to railway undertakings, it is essential to develop a harmonised format for safety certificates and a harmonised format for applications for safety certificates.
(10)
The Railway Safety Directive provides for examination of national safety measures from the point of view of safety and interoperability. To this end, an opinion based on independent and neutral expertise is essential.
(11)
In the field of safety, it is important to ensure the greatest possible transparency and an effective flow of information. An analysis of performances, based on common indicators and linking all players in the sector, does not yet exist and such a tool should be introduced. As regards statistics, close collaboration with Eurostat is necessary.
(12)
The national railway safety organisations, regulators and other national authorities should be able to request an independent technical opinion when they require information concerning several Member States.
(13)
Directive 2001/16/EC provides that a first group of technical specifications for interoperability (TSIs) is to be drawn up not later than 20 April 2004. The Commission has given a mandate to carry out this work to the European Association for Railway Interoperability (AEIF), which brings together the manufacturers of railway equipment and the infrastructure managers and operators. Steps should be taken to preserve the experience built up by professionals from the industry in the context of the AEIF. The continuity of the work and the development of the TSIs over time requires a permanent technical framework.
(14)
The interoperability of the Trans-European network should be enhanced and the new investment projects chosen for support by the Community should be in line with the objective of interoperability set in Decision No 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the Trans-European transport network (11).
(15)
In order to ensure continuity, the working parties to be set up by the Agency should rely as appropriate on the composition of the AEIF, supplemented by additional members.
(16)
Rolling stock maintenance is an important part of the safety system. There is no genuine European market for the maintenance of rail equipment owing to the lack of a system for certification of maintenance workshops. This situation adds to the costs for the sector and results in journeys without loads. A European certification system for maintenance workshops should therefore gradually be developed.
(17)
The vocational competences required for train drivers are a major factor in both safety and interoperability in Europe. They are also a precondition for the free movement of workers in the railway industry. This question should be tackled with respect to the existing framework for social dialogue. The Agency should provide the technical support necessary in order to take account of this aspect at European level.
(18)
Registration is first and foremost an act of recognition of the capability of rolling stock to operate under specified conditions. The registration should be transparent and non-discriminatory and fall within the competence of the public authorities. The Agency should provide technical support in order to establish a system for registration.
(19)
In order to ensure the greatest possible transparency and equal access for all parties to relevant information, the documents envisaged for the interoperability process should be accessible to the public. The same applies to licences and safety certificates. The Agency should provide an efficient means of exchanging this information.
(20)
Promotion of innovation in the field of railway safety and interoperability is an important task which the Agency should encourage. Any financial assistance provided within the framework of the Agency's activities in this respect should not lead to any distortion in the relevant market.
(21)
In order to perform its tasks properly, the Agency should have legal personality and an autonomous budget funded mainly through a contribution by the Community. In order to ensure independence in its daily management and in the opinions and recommendations which it issues, the Agency's Executive Director should have full responsibility and the Agency's staff should be independent.
(22)
In order to ensure effectively the accomplishment of the functions of the Agency, the Member States and the Commission should be represented on an Administrative Board vested with the necessary powers to establish the budget, verity its execution, adopt the appropriate financial rules, establish transparent working procedures for decision-making by the Agency, approve its work programme, adopt its budget, define a policy for visits to the Member States and appoint the Executive Director.
(23)
In order to guarantee the transparency of the Administrative Board's decisions, representatives of the sectors concerned should attend its deliberations, but without the right to vote, that right being reserved to the representatives of public authorities who are answerable to the democratic control authorities. The representatives of the sector should be appointed by the Commission on the basis of their representativeness at European level for railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, railway industry, workers unions, passengers and freight customers.
(24)
The Agency's work should be transparent. Effective control by the European Parliament should be ensured and, to this end, the European Parliament should have the possibility of hearing the Executive Director of the Agency. The Agency should also apply the relevant Community legislation concerning public access to documents.
(25)
Over the past years, as more decentralised agencies have been created, the budgetary authority has looked to improve transparency and control over the management of the Community funding allocated to them, in particular concerning the budgetisation of the fees, financial control, power of discharge, pension scheme contributions and the internal budgetary procedure (code of conduct). In a similar way, Regulation (EC) No 1073/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 concerning investigations conducted by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) (12) should apply without restriction to the Agency, which should accede to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 25 May 1999 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the Commission of the European Communities concerning internal investigations by the European Anti-Fraud Office (13).
(26)
Since the objectives of the action proposed, namely to establish a specialised body to formulate common solutions on matters concerning railway safety and interoperability, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States by reason of the joint nature of the work to be done, and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives,
