The role of the European Railway Agency

1. The role of the European Railway Agency Anders Lundström Head of Unit Sofia, 23 May 2008

2. EU transport policy – revitalising the railways • EU rail transport policy and legislation are based on: • opening up rail transport and rail supply market to competition • technical harmonisation – interoperability • ensuring and increasing the existing level of safety and developing a common approach to safety • transparency – publication of rules and regulation by public bodies

3. Core objectives and role of the Agency • To contribute, on technical matters, to the implementation of the EU legislation (Article 1 of the Agency Regulation 881/2004) and • To oversee the processes related to safety and interoperability and to provide greater impetus to the processes

4. Legal basis for the Agency’s work The Agency’s tasks and, hence, its organisational structure are based on mainly three components: Regulation (EC) No 881/2004 (Agency Regulation) European directives (railway safety directive, interoperability directives,…) ERA Work Programme (annually adopted by the Administrative Board)

5. Organisation chart of the Agency

6. Organisation chart of the Safety Unit

7. Organisation of the networks of the national safety authorities and the national investigation bodies Keeping the public safety database Developing the structure, monitoring and analysis of accident investigation reporting and the dissemination of recommendations and issues at European level Revising Annex I of the Safety Directive (common safety indicators) Developing a guidance of use for the common safety methods on risk assessment and evaluation Drafting a recommendation on methods describing the calculation and assessment of the achievement of national reference values and common safety targets Developing a recommendation on harmonised requirements for the network related Part B safety certification Evaluating the publication of national safety rules and recommending improvement of accessibility A view on main topics of the work programme 2008 Safety

8. Organisation chart of the Interoperability Unit

9. A view on main topics of the work programme 2008 Interoperability • Drafting the conventional rail TSIs for infrastructure, energy, locomotives and traction units, passenger carriages andtelematicsapplications for passengers • Revising the conventional rail TSIs for wagons and operation and traffic management • Developing the public interoperability database (technically based on the safety solution) • Evaluating the notification of national technical rules • Revising the “Guide for the application of the high speed TSIs” and drafting the guide related to the CR TSIs • Drafting a report on the analysis of the relationship between the 1435mm and the 1524/1520mm railway systems • Developing uniform criteria for accreditation of training centres for drivers • Recommending a European system for certification of maintenance workshops for rolling stock

10. A view on main topics of the work programme 2008 ERTMS and Economic Evaluation • ERTMS • ERTMS system authority for specifications on ETCS and GSM-R • Process for handling, assessment and incorporation of changes (change management) for the reference set of ERTMS specifications • Ensuring the configuration control of the reference baselines and the quality and completeness of the ERTMS specifications, considering the safety-critical characteristics of a number of core ERTMS technologies • Economic Evaluation • Assessment of infrastructure projects • Participation in ERTMS corridor working groups • Impact assessments of the Agency’s recommendations ex ante and ex post, including a revision of the Agency’s Economic Evaluation Methodology Guidelines, based on the experiences with these impact assessments

11. Governance and control The Agency is controlled by an Administrative Board and has some binding principles for its work The Administrative Board: • 1 representative per Member State • 4 Commission representatives • 6 representatives of sector organisations (railway undertakings, infrastructure managers, railway industry, trade unions, passengers, freight customers) – no voting rights • Norway and Iceland – no voting rights The working principles: • Budgetary and financial control with regular evaluation of all work • Transparency and public access to documents • Neutrality and impartiality

12. Staff of the Agency Technical staff come mainly from railway sector

13. The origin of the Agency’s Staff

14. Decision Commission Agency Working party … NSA Network … Social partners Internal reconcilement … Passengers / customers The process to decisions No decision power for the Agency, the Agency gives recommendations to the Commissionand technical opinions upon specific request! Comitology (Article 21 Committee)

15. Working according to the mandates • The Commission adopts a mandate, after a positive opinion of the Article 21 Committee, and issued as an annex to a Commission Decisionrequesting a recommendation from the Agency • The mandates define • the scope of work and • the principles when developing the recommendation like • taking into account current processes in Member States, documents from the sector, EU-funded studies, relevant EN standards • drafting a work programme and annual progress reports • The mandates contain obligations to • ensure coherence with other Agency recommendations and • carry out impact assessments on economic, social and environmental consequences • The Agency reports to the A21C on the progress of work

16. experts Sector organisations acting at European level*: UNIFE, CER, EIM, UITP, UIP, UIRR, ERFA, ETF, ALE National Safety Authorities’ experts * List established by Article 21 Committee on 22 February 2005 Involvement of the sector Article 3 of the Agency Regulation obliges the Agency to set up working groups according to the tasks given by this regulation and by the Work Programme. The Sector Associations are asked to send experts to participate and contribute.

17. Agency Network of National Safety Authorities Working Group ... Working Group Task Forces … Network of National Investigation Bodies Involvement of the national authorities The National Safety Authorities may appoint experts to the Agency’s working groups Directors of the National Safety Authorities Experts of the National Safety Authorities NSA Network Task Forces ... Directors of the National Investigation Bodies

18. Co-operation with the Member States • Direct participation in the Agency’s Administrative Board, NSA/NIB networks and working groups • Providing the requested documents to the Agency’s public database (Articles 11 and 19 of the ERA Regulation) • NSAs: Annual safety report by 30 September (Article 18 of RSD) • NIBs: • Annual report by 30 September (Article 23 of RSD) • Accident and incident investigation reports not later than 12 months after the date of the occurrence (Article 23 of RSD) • Informing the Agency about opening an investigation (Article 24 of RSD) • Regulatory bodies: Request for technical opinion concerning the safety-related aspects of matters drawn to their attention (Article 10 of ERA Regulation)

19. The Agency’s public database Main objective is to ensure the greatest possible transparency and equal access for all parties to relevant information • Safety documents (Article 11 of ERA Regulation) • Licenses and safety certificates • Accident investigation reports • National safety rules • Other information, e.g. safety indicators The safety database is operational and open to public from May 2007 • Interoperability documents (Article 19 of ERA Regulation) • “EC” declarations of verification of subsystems • “EC” declarations of conformity of constituents • Authorisation for placing in service • Registers of infrastructure and rolling stock The interoperability database is expected to be operational by end 2008

20. Thank you for your attention! 23/05/2008