Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget
The potential of the rail sector in delivering EU policy priorities
Opinion factsheet
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Opinion number:
CDR-1939-2019
Status:
Sprejeta mnenja
Impact
This own-initiative opinion adopted by the CoR Plenary in December 2019 was well received by the European Commission/DG MOVE; already during the preparation process it attracted significant attention, with a delegation of some ten officials from a range of units in DG MOVE attending the bilateral meeting with the CoR rapporteur (including Director of Land Transport, Elisabeth Werner), as well as representatives of DG COMP. The rapporteur also met with representatives of DG EAC during the preparation process.
The CoR's opinion was followed in March 2020 by the European Commission's proposal to make 2021 the European Year of Rail. The Commission's legislative proposal echoes several of the key points set out in the CoR's 2019 own-initiative opinion, in particular the role of rail for social, economic and territorial cohesion and in connecting peripheral regions to the EU's main transport routes (recital 6). The proposal also recognises the role of regional and local authorities in increasing modal shift to rail (Article 2) and refers to the significant contribution of the sector to the EU economy, industrial competitiveness and employment, and highlights the links with EU cultural heritage (Article 2 ( c )).
The CoR's opinion was followed in March 2020 by the European Commission's proposal to make 2021 the European Year of Rail. The Commission's legislative proposal echoes several of the key points set out in the CoR's 2019 own-initiative opinion, in particular the role of rail for social, economic and territorial cohesion and in connecting peripheral regions to the EU's main transport routes (recital 6). The proposal also recognises the role of regional and local authorities in increasing modal shift to rail (Article 2) and refers to the significant contribution of the sector to the EU economy, industrial competitiveness and employment, and highlights the links with EU cultural heritage (Article 2 ( c )).
Essential points
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- notes that, with prime responsibility for public transport services on their territories, Local and Regional Authorities (LRAs) are implementing solutions for a more sustainable transport sector, critical in achieving the goal of a sustainable Europe by 2030;
- notes that railways have the potential to become the most critical component of mobility and that rail is the only transport sector whose overall emissions are in decline, despite increasing transport volumes;
- highlights the importance of multimodality for a sustainable EU mobility system and the need for sustained efforts to ensure a level playing field, notably through internalisation of external costs; calls on the European Commission to encourage increased investment in intermodal logistics and rail motorways;
- on digitalisation in the rail sector, recommends faster deployment of ERTMS to better combine additional capacity and safer transport, as well as rapid roll-out of "Digital Freight Trains"; emphasises the potential of integrated ticketing and calls for guidelines at EU level to encourage railways to further open their data, pointing to their relevance for the development of smart cities and the new competences to be developed by LRAs in this area;
- recalls that employment in the rail sector is estimated at between 2.3 and 4 million jobs in the EU; calls for a close partnership between the Commission and the rail sector to address training, recruitment and attractiveness of rail sector professions for young adults;
- notes the special role of stations as vectors of culture; welcomes the success of the #DiscoverEU programme and suggests future joint initiatives in this area; calls on railways to increase their contribution to sustainable tourism;
- emphasises the strategic dimension of public procurement in the rail sector (inclusion of economic, social and environmental improvements in specifications and application of the MEAT (most economically advantageous tender) principle).