Ministers to back rail freight liberalisation

Date: 02/12/1999

By Renée Cordes

MEMBER states are expected to pledge their support next week for the European Commission's latest attempts to open rail freight to competition.

But transport ministers will stop short of calling for foreign companies to be granted automatic access to networks in the face of French opposition to abandoning the right to decide whether to grant third parties access on a case-by-case basis.

Finnish sources say there is an "85% chance" of ministers agreeing a package of Commission proposals aimed at introducing more cross-border competition in the Union's railway sector at their meeting next week.

The proposals unveiled by Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio last week amount to a wide-ranging package of reforms designed to achieve greater price transparency, efficiency and competition. She also called for separate measures to harmonise technical standards across the Union.

Diplomats say that while EU governments are willing to endorse most of the proposed market-opening measures, France's reluctance to require railway companies to offer unconditional access to their freight networks is shared by Belgium and Luxembourg, amid fears that this could result in massive job losses in the sector. "This is politically very delicate," said an EU source, adding that some member states were still pressing for a unanimous decision even though this was not absolutely necessary.

Maarten Labberton, head of the International Road Transport Union's EU delegation in Brussels, said the conclusions likely to emerge from the ministerial meeting would be "modest" at best.