2008 is a significant year for CER and a crucial year for rail transport in Europe.
This year, CER and the European railway and infrastructure companies can look back on 20 years of cooperation with the European institutions in shaping European transport policy. In 1988, the European railways realised that the era of national business would come to an end in rail transport. After the signing of the European Single Act in 1987, other sectors were already preparing for the internal market, an “area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured.” Even if railways, at the time, were still state-owned public service providers with a clearly limited national area of activity, it became clear that EU legislators would shift their attention to rail transport.
The European railways prepared themselves for the EU’s political activities regarding their sector by setting up a joint office in Brussels, the “Community of European Railways” in 1988. The main task was and still is today to provide business expertise to staff in the EU institutions and to inform railway and infrastructure companies of the activities of the institutions in Brussels.
Since then, CER has grown from 12 to 70 members and became the “Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies”. This development not only reflects the enlargement of the EU from 12 to 27 Member States, but is also a result of the opening and liberalisation of the railway market, a key objective of EU rail transport policy over the last
20 years.
With the overall objective to create an integrated European transport area, a comprehensive European legislative framework was set up, ranging from the corporate structure of railway companies, their relation to the state and the infrastructure manager, to rules for competitive behaviour and harmonised technical standards.
CER has always been a reliable partner for the EU institutions, providing a single “voice of the European railways”. This annual report illustrates once again our activities and commitment to help bring about good policy. Conversely, even if the rail sector has not always agreed with certain political decisions, we have always felt that there was a basic consensus in Brussels, namely that one cannot think “Europe” without “rail transport”.
Today, with a growing awareness of the risks of climate change, this consensus is receiving more weight. Therefore, 2008 will be a crucial year for the future of transport in Europe. In June 2008, Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot will present a proposal for another Eurovignette Directive revision. Afterwards the Parliament and the Council will discuss and fix their positions on the issue. Hopefully, Commission, Parliament and Council will pave the way for transparency and responsibility in the European transport system: supporting the principle of consumers paying for the impact of their choices on the whole of society; and rewarding those who contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through the use of environmentally friendly modes of transport.
The introduction of the “polluter-pays” principle will significantly change the European transport system. Today, strawberries, yoghurt and other low-value products are transported by truck across the whole continent, contributing through their CO2 emissions to climate change. The growing demand for passenger mobility in urban areas definitely increases the problem of congestion, local pollution and accidents in the cities. However, the bill for dealing with these external effects is paid by all taxpayers, not only by those who are using road transport services and causing the external effects.
The European Commission’s IMPACT study - of which the first deliverable was presented in January 2008 – clearly points out that these external effects carry a price tag which the polluter should pay for. If these costs were included, there would clearly be a “low-cost option”, namely rail transport. If one looks into freight traffic, transport by Heavy Goods Vehicles generates c 71 in external costs per 1000tkm, whereas rail transport accounts for only a quarter of it. For passenger transport, the low-cost argument applies as well:A railway passenger produces less than a third of CO2 for a journey than a person using the car.
If polluters have to pay for these costs, it may give them an incentive to opt for a solution with lower external costs which would also be in the interest of society at large. If the polluter does not, society will also benefit: the additional funds could relieve national budgets by providing money for the necessary investments in environmentally-friendly transport infrastructure.
So let’s use the opportunity of the Eurovignette Directive revision to create a level playing field and ensure that society can benefit from the real low-cost mode of transport!
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