Regulation (EU) 2020/2222 on certain aspects of railway safety and connectivity with regard to the cross-border infrastructure linking the Union and the United Kingdom through the Channel Fixed Link

Summary:

Regulation (EU) 2020/2222 - adopted by the European Union on 23 December 2020 - aimed at ensuring that the Channel Fixed Link remained in operation after the end of the transition period introduced following the the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). This is a text with EEA relevance.

Further information:

The Treaty between France and the United Kingdom concerning the construction and operation by private stakeholders of a Channel Fixed Link - Treaty of Canterbury, signed in 1986 - established an Intergovernmental Commission to supervise all matters concerning the construction and operation of that Link.

The draft law introduced by the European Commission on 27 November 2020 aimed at allowing for the safety authorisation issued to the infrastructure manager of the Channel Tunnel to remain valid for two months after the end of the transition period. Moreover, the measure would provide an extension to certain safety certificates and licences which were issued under EU law to rail companies established in the UK and using the cross-border infrastructure linking the EU and the UK through the Channel Tunnel. Without this measure, traffic in the Channel Tunnel, a fundamental connectivity link between the EU and the UK, would be interrupted.

By temporarily extending the validity of these safety authorisations and certificates, the measure gives the French authorities more time to arrange the future binational administration, so that railways can continue to operate in the Channel Tunnel. Decision (EU) 2020/1531 empowers France to negotiate with the United Kingdom a continuation of the binational administration of the Channel Tunnel.

Member State representatives adopted a negotiating position on behalf of the Council of the European Union on 2 December 2020. The European Parliament adopted the draft law on 17 December. The Act was formally signed by the co-legislators on 23 December 2020 and published in the Official Journal on 28 December 2020.

• Primary Source

Official

EUR-LEX: COM(2020)782: Proposal for a Regulation on certain aspects of railway safety and connectivity with regard to the cross-border infrastructure linking the Union and the United Kingdom through the Channel Fixed Link https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=COM:2020:782:FIN

European Parliament: Legislative Observatory: Procedure File for Proposal on Certain aspects of railway safety and connectivity with regard to the cross-border infrastructure linking the Union and the United Kingdom through the Channel Fixed Link (2020/0347(COD)) https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?lang=en&reference=2020/0347(COD)

Council of the European Union: Press Release, 02/12/2020: Channel Tunnel rail traffic at the end of the transition period: Coreper agrees mandate to ensure it can continue https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2020/12/02/channel-tunnel-rail-traffic-at-the-end-of-the-transition-period-coreper-agrees-mandate-to-ensure-it-can-continue/

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