CER, the first raport

Community of European Railways (CER) presented not so long ago its first activity report, on year 2002 and the first trimester of 2003. In this document, CER delineates a general image of the assembly of the activities developed in the European railway system in the respective period, as well as the ideas promoted by the European policies in the field and, not at last, the discussions held within the institutions of the European Union with regard to the role that the railway sector will have on the continent.

The report makes a review of the events of year 2002 and of the ones of the first trimester of the year 2003. Therefore, the year 2002 is considered a reference one in the history of the European Union because it successfully started the introduction of the Euro currency and it has been concluded with the decision of admitting other 10 countries in the European Union.
The political and economical evolution of the Union, with its ups and downs, has been, by all means, reflected in the activity of CER and its members. The European railways have been confronted with an economical decrease that has been maintained, and was not being followed by an increase, as there was stipulated, fact that had a negative impact on the performances recorded by the railway sector.
Therefore, according to the statistics performed by the UIC, in the entire Europe (namely, in the 15 member states of EU, in the countries from the center and the east, plus Norway and Sweden) the total number of the passengers/kilometer has been decreased with 1.18%. This process has been caused especially by the fact that in the central and east-European countries the number of passengers/kilometer has been decreased with 8.3%, in the European Union recording, in fact, an increase - with 0.03%. The freight transport was not similarly affected by the difficulties that have occurred on the European market, slightly being increased - with 0.1%.
From the continental transport policy point of view, there could be said that 2002 has been the year of the "packages", because there has been started the implementation of the first package, the infrastructure one (the White Chart - European Policy of Transports, at the horizon of year 2010: selection time), by the debut in the international competition of the European Networks of Freight Transport (TERFN). There has been followed by the issuance of the second package of the European Commission: Towards an Integrated Railway Territory, which has been submitted to the debates of the continental railway community and of the important institutions of EU, everything culminating with its reading in the European Parliament. The next step has been the approval of this package by the EU council of the Transport Ministers, on March 28, 2003, being waited its approval up to the end of the current year.
2002 has been a year of changing the management of CER: there have been selected the new president, Mr. Giancarlo Cimoli, the president and the executive director of the Italian Railways (FS), and the new executive director, Mr. Johannes Ludewig, former executive director of the German Railways (DB AG).
During this period CER has also oriented the interest points, has defined its own policy, its own priorities, that has submitted for public debates, in relationship with the decision factors of the European Commission succeeding to impose its point of view in the problems aiming the railway sector.
For example, on December 2002, the organization was made in this respect, namely, certain work meetings between CER and the European Federation of the Transporters (EFT), for the negotiation of the conditions for the development of the services at the borders and in point of granting the licenses for the locomotive drivers at European level. The discussions have led to the conclusion of an agreement, which is possible to become the base of a future regulation and represents an important step in the creation of a unique market of railway transport in Europe.
Still, the developed and the adoption of CER Passengers Charter, the volunteer agreement of the railway companies to increase the security standards in the services that they offer, can be also considered a proof of a more active becoming of CER. The success obtained by this initiative has demonstrated the desire of the European railway men to improve the services and, in the same time, it presented their "message": It is wiser to let the railway companies to involve from their own initiative in such actions!
The development and the improvement of the freight railway transport performances on the main European corridors represent another subject that has been brought to the attention of CER. In this context, the meeting that took place between the vice-president of the Commission of Transport and Energy, Mrs. Loyola de Palacio, and the president of CER, Mr. Giancarlo Cimoli, on December 10, 2002, has proved to be a very successful one.
According to CER Report, year 2003 is under the sign of seeking the answer to the question "Where to?" Among the main issues which CER wishes to approach during the current year, were also included the ones of the investments in the infrastructure, the ones of the hottest points of the railway transports policy. The achievement at European level of a modern transport infrastructure, and especially of a railway infrastructure, has a faraway time horizon in order to be finalized, fact that has contradicted the provisions on the evolution of the volume of transported goods: up to 2015 or 2020 there is planned and increase of this volume with 50%. Yet in the conditions of maintaining the current infrastructure is obvious the fact that these provisions could not be considered realistic. Consequently, there is imposed the conclusion that the railway system needs, from the financial and temporal point of view, a much more active, more busy agenda. That is why, CER proposes that the programs for 2003 should watch more attentively the priority projects, especially the ones regarding the needs of the countries that are in the adhering process to EU.
CER report analyzes then, step by step, the various sectors of the activity from European railway transport, among which we can mention here:
· the reform in the public services, the help of the state in the public transport and the role of CER Passengers Charter;
· the freight transport and the three key-words of its evolution; increase, quality and corridors;
· the adoption of the "Marco Polo" Program, dedicated to the development of certain modes of transport that are more friendly towards the environment;
· the dangerous goods transport and the safety measures and the protection of the environment that has to be enforced by the railway companies;
· the procedures followed while crossing the borders of the European Union and their simplification for the railway transport;
· the policy issues of the railway transport infrastructure;
· the energy taxation and the new limits imposed by the recent European directive coming into force starting with January 2004;
· the polluting emissions and the reduction of the noise on the railways;
· the role of the research in the development of the railway sector and the most important objectives of the European Railway Research Council (ERRAC)
· the development of the railway market;
· the Railway statistics;
· the human resources and the social issues from the railway world.
We will approach, in the next lines, only the issues related to the railway transport infrastructure policy that CER is taking into consideration next.
Consequently, CER will monitor and support, as it did it before, one of the most important projects initiated in the transports sector: the achievement of the Trans-European Transport, Energy and Telecommunications Network (TEN), that is presently in full revising stage. The transport network TEN-T, which will represent the vertebral spine that TEN-T will be developed on, has been amended on September 2002, the European Commission proposing the investments to be focalized especially on the reduction of the blockages in transports, and implicitly, on the transport modes that are more friendly against the environment (namely, the railways and the fluvial navigation). In this respect, there has been achieved a list including 20 new priority projects -, among which 17 are related especially to the development of certain railway network. All these are very important for the continental railway transport, are projects of a great span, as, for example, the one through which there has been created the network for crossing the Pirinei Mountains, finalized in 1994.
On September 2002, there has been proposed the majority of the financial support of the Community for these projects, proposal that is still discussed in the Committee of the European Parliament for Regional Policy, Transports and Tourism and in the Council of Europe, the negotiations from the council with respect to the priority projects proving to be complicated and difficult to be solved. Yet, on the other hand, at the level of the working groups there have been already established the coordinates of the future revision of TEN, planned for 2004, which will represent a major restructuring of the existing railway networks on the territory of the EU member states, as well as the one aspiring to that status.
The Community of the European Railways has warmly saluted the proposal of revision of TEN, showing that the problem of investments in the infrastructure is vital for the continental railways. And that is because, as the important European organization considered, without a solid infrastructure of the railway system there could not significantly bring its contribution to the sustained development of Europe.
Therefore, the increase stipulated for the freight railway transport and the necessity to develop and to improve the quality and the attractiveness of the services offered by the railway impose important investments in the infrastructure, within TEN, as well as outside it. And that, especially from the European Union, fact that can be considered benefic for the Romanian Railways.

Silvia Mirea