Showdown on transport contract rules

Intensive negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers are expected, following votes in the Parliament’s transport committee this week (27 March) on proposals to set common standards for public service contracts in the rail and road sectors.

Dutch Socialist MEP Erik Meijer, who drafted the Parliament’s report, for which about 200 amendments were submitted, predicted a "complicated compromise" in Council. The two institutions will be discussing a common position in April before a vote by all MEPs in May.

Meijer said that protracted negotiations between Parliament and the Council thus far had been a triumph for "consumer organisations, environmental organisations, unions and many others".

Proposals had been blocked for six years. The Council of Ministers had found it difficult to agree on proposals, which seek to iron out differences between fragmented national systems.

The 2003 Altmark ruling at the European Court of Justice, which determined that compensation for public services should not be classified as state aid, was instrumental in the push for greater clarification of standards.

MEPs on the transport committee approved amendments on subsidiarity and direct contracting (the right of authorities to award contracts without a public call for tender), but rejected a provision guaranteeing workers their jobs in cases where contract-holders change.

Meijer said: "I have a positive feeling. One of the main aims I had in the first reading was for the right of cities and regions to organise the way they give contracts, so-called home production.

"The original proposal of the Commission was based on the principle of forced tendering everywhere."

Intensive negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers are expected, following votes in the Parliament’s transport committee this week (27 March) on proposals to set common standards for public service contracts in the rail and road sectors.