European Commission refers Romania to the Court of Justice for failing to transpose legislation on European railway space

The European Commission has referred Romania, Greece and Luxembourg to the Court of Justice of the EU for failing to transposing the legislation on the creation of the single European railway space.

The letter makes reference to the new international railway transport services, the awarding of licenses to railway operators, availability of information on access conditions and tariffs for services in terminals, railway stations and more.

According to the Commission, Romania’s national legislation does not provide the obligation to consult the railway sector on the new contractual agreements and that to align the current agreements to the new norms.

Moreover, the commission argues, Romanian legislation should include a transparent procedure for the selection of staff with decision making powers with the national railway regulator.

Romania was given two months to conform to the EU legislation. Otherwise, the Commission will issue a new warning.

Directive 2012/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 establishing a single European railway area entered into force on 15 December 2012 and establishes a mandated track access regime for third-party railway operators.

According to its provisions, infrastructure managers are required to grant non-discriminatory access to railway undertakings (and other possible applicants listed in the Directive) operating on the European railway network.The principle of open access applies to the use of railway infrastructure for domestic and international rail services.

Member states may exclude specific network and services from the mandated track access regime, such as local and regional stand-alone networks, networks intended for the operation of urban or suburban passenger rail services only, or infrastructure whose track gauge is different from the main rail network within the EU.

The core provisions of the Directive set out the requirements and procedures for the allocation of railway infrastructure capacity and methods for the calculation and collection of infrastructure charges. The directive was required to be transposed until 16 June 2015.