The national authorities have an obligation to investigate the circumstances under which the tragic accident in Tempe occurred, underlines the European Commission.

When asked about this, Adalber Jans, a spokesman for the transport commission, replied: “We cannot say under what circumstances the accident could have been prevented. This is the task of the investigations that must be carried out now, and this is the responsibility of the national authorities. The European Railway Agency is available on request to support national authorities if needed. However, the main responsibility lies with the national authorities.”

With regard to the Greek rights infringement procedure that the Commission launched in December 2020 and the Commission’s decision (15 February 2023) to refer Greece to the European Court of Justice, the representative explained that the decision concerns the non-conclusion of a contractual agreement between the national railway regulator and the railway infrastructure manager (OSE).

“The conclusion and publication of such an agreement is a requirement of European law. This agreement is very important for the transparency of upcoming projects in the railway infrastructure network. This is important for the transparency of the use of public funds and it does not specifically relate to safety on the railway,” the representative of the commission explained.

“We are not considering project contracts, but the transposition of European legislation into national legislation,” explained Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.

In particular, Jans explained that the infringement procedure against Greece concerns incomplete compliance by national authorities with the directive on a single European railway areawhich dates back to 2012 and contains specific commitments.

According to the directive, all Member States were required to ensure that the contractual agreement between the national competent authority and the railway infrastructure manager was concluded no later than 16 June 2015 and published within one month.

Finally, the representative of the Commission noted that the EU supports the modernization of the railway infrastructure with Community funds. In particular, he said that since 2014, the EU has financed 16 transport projects in Greece in the amount of about 700 million euros, 90% of which relate to rail transport. The Resilience and Recovery Fund plans to finance three railway infrastructure modernization projects worth 130 million euros.

Source: RES-IPE