Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2002 on rail transport statistics, as regards the collection of data on goods, passengers and accidents

The main objective of the European Union’s transport policy is to establish an internal market by developing common policies to promote a high degree of competitiveness and the harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of economic activities. The creation of a genuine internal market is fundamental to revitalising the railway sector and will help to make rail freight and passenger transport services more competitive and attractive, and increase their modal share of transport.

In 2011, the European Commission adopted a roadmap (White Paper — Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area — Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system) featuring 40 concrete initiatives for the next decade aimed at building a competitive transport system that will increase mobility, remove major barriers in key areas and fuel growth and employment. At the same time, the proposals will dramatically reduce Europe’s dependence on imported oil and cut carbon emissions in transport by 60% by 2050.

According to the White Paper, a necessary condition for establishing a Single European Transport Area is the creation of Single European Railway Area, which can be done by completing the process of market liberalisation, including giving the European Rail Agency a stronger role in the field of rail safety, in particular in terms of supervising national safety measures and working towards their progressive harmonisation.

The availability of detailed and timely rail transport statistics is becoming increasingly important given the growing momentum of evidence-based policy making in the Commission and the need to monitor progress towards the goals set out in the White Paper.

A technical analysis of the data collected under the European legislation on rail transport statistics and of the dissemination policy has been carried out at European level, in order to propose possible technical solutions to simplify as much as possible the various activities necessary for statistical production, while keeping the final output in line with present and future user needs.

The aim of this proposal is to modify Regulation (EC) No 91/2003 in order to update, simplify and optimise the existing legal framework for European statistics on rail transport and to align it with the new institutional context.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)611: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:611:FIN

---