IRG-Rail’s Plenary Assembly met for its autumn session in Berlin, chaired by Dr. Annegret Groebel and Prof. Dr. Karsten Otte from Bundesnetzagentur, Germany’s Regulatory Authority for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway. Bundesnetzagentur welcomed the representatives of 23 Regulatory Bodies on site and six connected remotely.
In addition to reports from the Working Groups on their deliveries for 2023 and the next planned activities for the work programme in 2024, the IRG-Rail members addressed current developments in the railway sector and within IRG-Rail.
The Plenary adopted the following documents:
- An “Update of the paper on the economic approach of charging principles of Article 31 (7) and Article 31 (8) of the Directive 2012/34/EU”. It contains new information, e.g. on cost categories, the ownership of assets, and on the level of charges exceeding eligible cost plus reasonable profit.
- A report on the “Railway market regulation in freight terminals“. It gives an overview on national approaches and considerations on which parts and services within a freight terminal are rail-related.
- The Memorandum of Understanding Art. 9 lit. 1 was amended to give two Regulatory Bodies the opportunity to co-chair IRG-Rail.
Ahead of the Plenary Assembly a paper on “General Remarks on the EC proposal for a Regulation on the use of railway infrastructure capacity in the Single European railway area” was published, which gives first considerations to ensure non-discriminatory access to rail infrastructure and service facilities in Europe and the efficient use of the rail network. As well, IRG-Rail published “Preliminary opinion on the European Commission’s Track Access guidelines” to share their views and experiences on this matter to support the EC's work on the guidelines during their development.
You find all four reports as well as the amended Memorandum of Understanding on this website (https://www.irg-rail.eu/).
The Plenary elected Ms. Cani Fernández from the Spanish Regulatory Body Comisión Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia for Chair of IRG-Rail in 2025 following Jonas Bjelfvenstam and Carl von Utfall Danielsson from the Swedish Regulatory Body Transportstyrelsen, who will chair IRG-Rail in 2024.
The next IRG-Rail Plenary Assembly will be held in May 2024.
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Group_photo_november_plenary_2023 IRG-Rail
