Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the progress made towards achieving interoperability of the rail system

This report describes the stage reached in achieving interoperability of the European rail system since the report adopted by the Commission in September 2009. It responds to Article 39 of Directive 2008/57/EC.

Directive 2008/57/EC entered into force on 19 July 2008. The Directive was amended by the following acts:
– Commission Directive 2009/131/EC of 16 October 2009 amending Annex VII to Directive 2008/57/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the interoperability of the rail system within the Community;
– Commission Directive 2011/18/EU of 1 March 2011 amending Annexes II, V and VI to Directive 2008/57/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the interoperability of the rail system within the Community.

The deadline for transposing Directives 2008/57/EC and 2009/131/EC into national law was 19 July 2010. The deadline for transposing Directive 2011/18/EU into national law was 31 December 2011.

The Commission is closely monitoring the transposition of these interoperability Directives in Member States. If Member States fail to communicate national implementing measures, the Commission formally requests the Member States at fault to transpose the Directives concerned. By 31 August 2012, the Commission had launched infringement procedures against five Member States for failure to communicate national implementing measures.

The Commission departments, with the support of the European Railway Agency, are currently checking the conformity of the national implementing acts with these Directives. In the event of any non-conformity, the Member States are asked to produce further clarifications. If, after further analysis, the non-conformity is confirmed, a formal infringement procedure is launched against the Member State concerned.

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)32: Follow the progress of this report through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:032:FIN

---