On June 5, 2010, Deutsche Bahn (DB) President Rudiger Gruber presented the group’s competitiveness report during the sessions on railway financing in Brussels. On the occasion, the German official has expressed his disappointment caused by some European countries which had not opened national markets to competition for other companies in the EU, like Germany, claiming reciprocity to all European countries. Although he avoided to directly point to France, Gruber’s initiative risks deepening the split between the main players on the European railway market, in times when the sector needs a joint effort to overcome the economic downturn which affects both liberalised and less opened markets, economic analysts say.
Rudiger Gruber points out in DB’s 2010 Competitiveness Report that Germany has more to lose than to win after the rail market opening to foreign operators. According to the report, Germany has the most competitive market in Europe and perhaps, even in the world. Statistics show that there are 320 concession contracts with the German infrastructure manager, DB Netz. In 2009, a record number of 52,000 route demands from rail operators, many of them with foreign capital and shareholding, was answered under the supervision of the Federal Agency of German Railways. In 2009, the market share of DB’s competitors has reached 24.5% for freight transport (3.4% more than in 2008) and 20.3% for passenger transport (1.9% than last year). “The European picture is completely different: some European countries have decided not to open their rail market at all and in some cases, the liberalisation cannot be imposed”, explains Rudiger Grube, General Manager Deutsche Bahn and President of DB Group Board. Grube has identified four main reasons for the low competitiveness level at EU level, the most important cause of this gap between the German market and the rest of the European markets being law deficits which prevent a uniform implementation of rail market liberalisation. DB President said he believed it was inconceivable that the EU, represented by the European Commission (CE), would tighten norms in countries with foreign competitors. The German official also pointed out that many European countries had not yet established an independent and efficient regulatory body capable to transpose the European legislative directives, while in some countries there are no foreign investors at all. Another reason would also be the still visible discrepancies between national and European regulations on technical standards. This is often considered the perfect pretext not to give a foreign operator the opportunity to access a market outside the origin country. To this end, Grube has demanded the EC to expand the attribution of the European Railway Agency, ERA, and to adopt stricter measures in the establishment of European single markets. Grube has also stressed legislative deficiencies which allow a state to finance its own national companies and has said that the pursuit of this situation affected the state-owned companies which were not equally treated by authorities.
The French refute Deutsche Bahn’s position
In France, the report presented by DB’s President has been considered a veiled attack on French authorities. French specialists say that both the report and the moment of its presentation have been previously studied by DB. According to Jean Michel Dencoisne, SNCF representative to European forums and former CEO Thalys, DB wants to pressure the French rail authorities to open markets for German competitors. In July 2010, the period in which a state can grant state guarantees to national companies expires. French analysts say that the stake of DB’s initiatives depends on the profitability of the French market, the most attractive and stable market in Europe, according to specialists within the Hexagon and that Germany has opened the domestic market precisely to prevent a general breakdown caused by Deutsche Bahn’s poor management of the railway system. They also say that liberalisation in France has a regional form, since regional authorities are more competent than central regulatory bodies, while regional network have an elevated competitiveness level. At the same time, French specialists blame Deutsche Bahn for boasting about the liberalisation of the German market, while attacking the decisions of the regulatory body, sometimes even reclaiming to the Federal Court of Appeals, which denotes DB’s lack of consistency. They also blame the companies for trying to alienate the attention from the true problems of the European market which would have more wins in case of a merger between companies, just like in the air industry, where large European operators have joined their forces to reinforce or even save their position on the market.
by Alin Lupulescu
Share on:
