The end of January has marked the public issue of the final draft of the European Commission’s proposals which will probably form the Fourth Railway Package. A set of directives and regulations aimed to put in practice the vision of the Commissioner for Transport, Siim Kallas. It is a “package” rather bold in patches, marked, as any other public document, by signs of the compromise with the different interests which govern the European railway industry.
We are talking about a legislative package aimed to create, or more precisely, to complete the construction of a single European railway market as initiated by the first railway packages and as it can also be observed in other industries.
And yet, something tells me that negotiations will be very difficult. The social and economic context is different from that during the issue of the other 3 railway packages and even from that of the White Paper on Transport.
The economic crisis which began in 2007-2008 continues worldwide with several outbursts which deepens the uncertainty among European citizens. Xenophobe and populist displays begin to be part of every day’s life causing the disruption of the constitutional elements of the continental structure. Rumours about Great Britain leaving the European Union are somehow natural as the talks about a referendum in France on the same topic probably are as well; to limit access to the labour market or in the free trade area seems also natural.
This is the context in which some Euro-enthusiasts are trying to build a new European market – the European railway market; and trying to join the railway players around a common goal is difficult, considering the conservatism and the interest in the chain for command.
As shown in the previous issues, railways in Europe have been built as war instruments for military defence and for building nationalist societies. The borders between “railway administrations” are even deeper than between nations. The railway life is conducted not so much by the entrepreneurial spirit and the will to help the European community, but by the wish to preserve privileges, a hermetic market, and a picture of the past. And the Fourth Package comes to confuse precisely these elements.
Will the Commission be able to impose an integrating vision with trains capable to run from the Atlantic to the Black Sea or will we see local variants of the ETCS being constructed aimed to replace the national signalling systems and the survival of “national” vehicles that have to be thoroughly checked before being introduced to other countries?
by Ştefan Roşeanu
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