Letter of formal notice and reasoned opinion
Rail transport: Commission urges GERMANY and POLAND to fully transpose and apply EU rail safety and interoperability rules
The Commission is calling on Germany (INFR(2022)2100 and INFR(2022)2101) and Poland (INFR(2020)0551) and INFR(2020)0552) to implement correctly the rail interoperability and safety rules of Directive (EU) 2016/797 and Directive (EU) 2016/798. These directives are part of the Fourth Railway Package, a set of six European laws that aim to complete the single market for rail services (Single European Railway Area), revitalise the rail sector and make it more competitive towards other modes of transport. The directives infringed by Germany and Poland aim to make it easier and cheaper for companies to run railway services across Europe. They notably created faster and cheaper ways to have railway stock certified for use in several Member States. They also removed unneeded national technical and operational barriers to facilitate cross-border rail traffic. Member States had until June 2019 to transpose the new rules in their national laws, a deadline they could extend by one year. Poland has yet to notify the Commission of full transposition of the Directive into national law. Germany has not applied all the requirements to all of its regional networks. Today, the Commission is sending letters of formal notice to Germany and reasoned opinions to Poland. Germany now has two months to reply to the letters of formal notice. In the absence of a satisfactory response, the Commission may decide to issue reasoned opinions. Today’s reasoned opinions sent to Poland follow letters of formal notice sent by the Commission in November 2020. Poland now has two months to reply and take the necessary measures. Otherwise, the Commission may refer the cases to the Court of Justice of the European Union.