Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council repealing Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69 of the Council on common rules for the normalisation of the accounts of railway undertakings

Regulation (EEC) No 1192/69 allows Member States to compensate 36 enumerated railway undertakings for the payment of obligations which undertakings of other transport modes do not have to support, such as special family allowances and pensions.

When the rules for normalisation are correctly applied, such State support is considered compatible with the internal market and Member States are exempted from State aid notification obligations, although Member States are required to officially publish their compensation decisions. Today, only a few Member States rely on the Regulation in order to justify payments of compensation.

The Regulation was adopted before the rail market was liberalised and when rail transport in Europe was developing primarily within national borders, with integrated companies both operating rail services and managing rail infrastructure. In the context of this monopolistic market, the objective of the Regulation at the time was to put railway undertakings and undertakings active in other transport modes on an equal competitive footing.

The proposed initiative to repeal the Regulation will eliminate inconsistencies in the EU legal order and will contribute to simplification by eliminating a legal act which is now obsolete.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)26: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2013:026:FIN

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